Kinetic Analysis of the Hydrolysis of Pentose‐1‐phosphates through Apparent Nucleoside Phosphorolysis Equilibrium Shifts

Herein, we report an addition to the toolbox for the monitoring and quantification of the hydrolytic decay of pentose‐1‐phosphates, which are known to be elusive and difficult to quantify. This communication describes how apparent equilibrium shifts of a nucleoside phosphorolysis reaction can be employed to calculate hydrolytic loss of pentose‐1‐phosphates based on the measurement of post‐hydrolysis equilibrium concentrations of a nucleoside and a nucleobase. To demonstrate this approach, we assessed the stability of the relatively stable ribose‐1‐phosphate at 98 °C and found half‐lives of 1.8–11.7 h depending on the medium pH. This approach can be extended to other sugar phosphates and related reaction systems to quantify the stability of UV‐inactive and hard‐to‐detect reaction products and intermediates.