Phospholipid analogues: side chain- and polar head group-dependent effects on phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis

In recent studies we showed that the phospholipid analogue hexadecylphosphocholine inhibits phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis by affecting the translocation of the rate-limiting enzyme of phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis, CTP:phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase (EC 2.7.7.15), to membranes, where it is active (Geilen et al. 1992. J. Biol. Chem. 267: 6719-6724). The present study was performed to investigate the structure-dependency of this effect. It is shown that the inhibitory properties of phospholipid analogues are dependent on their alkyl side chain length (dodecylphosphocholine < tetradecylphosphocholine < hexadecylphosphocholine < heptadecylphosphocholine < octadecylphosphocholine > eicosadecylphosphocholine). Furthermore, it is demonstrated that this inhibition of phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis by phospholipid analogues is also dependent on the polar head group (hexadecylphosphocholine >> hexadecylphosphoethanolamine = hexadecylphosphoserine). These effects result from an inhibition of the CTP:phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase and are not due to an inhibition of choline uptake or differences in the cellular uptake of the phospholipid analogues investigated.