When structural and electronic analogy leads to reactivity: the unprecedented phosphodiesterase activity of vanadates.

The interaction between an RNA model phosphodiester and oxovanadate complexes results in a purely hydrolytic cleavage of a phosphodiester bond under physiological pH and temperature: a comparison of the rate-pH profile with the species distribution diagram indicates that the negatively charged tetravanadate V(4)O(12), which forms at toxic vanadium levels, is the hydrolytically active species.