General base-guanidinium cooperation in bifunctional artificial phosphodiesterases

Artificial phosphodiesterases that combine a guanidinium unit with a general base connected by a m-xylylene linker catalyze the transesterification of the RNA model compound 2-hydroxypropyl p-nitrophenyl phosphate (HPNP). The bifunctional catalysts presented in this work show varying extents of cooperation between catalytic units and a rate enhancement of 4 x 10^4 in the most favorable case.