Disulfides, imines, and metal coordination within a single system: interplay between three dynamic equilibria

We report a system in which three distinct dynamic linkages, disulfide (S-S), imine (C=N), and coordinative (N-->metal) bonds were shown to be capable of simultaneous reversible exchange. The "disulfide layer" of the system under study consists of two homo-disulfides, bis(4-aminophenyl) disulfide 1 and bis(4-methoxyphenyl) disulfide 2 that equilibrate in the presence of catalytic amount of triethylamine to favor the formation of a hetero-disulfide product, 4-aminophenyl-4'-methoxyphenyl disulfide 3. The addition of 2-formylpyridine and a metal salt strongly perturbed this 1+2<-->3 equilibrium through the formation of metal complexes incorporating disulfide 1 as a subcomponent. CuI perturbed the equilibrium by a factor of 3.3, and FeII by a factor of 179, in both cases in favor of the homo-disulfides. The disulfide equilibrium could be further modified, following metal-complex formation, by coordinative (transmetallation: substitution of FeII for CuI) or covalent (imine exchange: the substitution of one amine residue for another) exchange. Thus, although the three kinds of dynamic linkages were demonstrated to be mutually compatible, changes at one kind of linkage could be used to predictably perturb an equilibrium involving another.     

The Action of Carbon Disulfide and Sulfur on Enamines,Ketimines, and CH Acids

The reaction of sulfur, carbon disulfide, and enamines at room temperature leads mainly or exclusively to 3H-1,2-dithiole-3-thiones; these are occasionally accompanied by 2H-1,3-dithiole-2-thiones, which can also be prepared by a modified procedure. Many enamines react with sulfur at room temperature to form thioamides. At about 50°C, enamines of acetophenone give 2-benzylidene-4-phenyl-2H-1,3-dithiol. The action of isothiocyanates and sulfur on enamines leads to the formation of thiazolidine-2-thiones. 2H-Thiopyran-2-thiones can be prepaAred from enamines or dienamines with carbon disulfide at room temperature. The reaction of ketimines (Schiff bases) with carbon disulfide and sulfur yields 3H-1,2-dithiole-3-thiones or isothiazoline-5-thiones. The reaction of alkynes with sulfur and carbon disulfide leads to 2H-1,3-dithiole-2-thiones. Nitriles containing active methylene groups react with carbon disulfide and sulfur to form 5-amino-3H-1,2-dithiole-3-thiones. When isothiocyanates are used instead of CS₂, the reaction leads to δ⁴-4-amino-thiazoline-2-thiones.     

Synthesis, redox properties, and conformational analysis of vicinal disulfide ring mimics

A vicinal disulfide ring (VDR) results from disulfide-bond formation between two adjacent cysteine residues. This eight-membered ring is a rare motif in protein structures and is functionally important to those few proteins that posses it. This article focuses on the construction of strained and unstrained VDR mimics, discernment of the preferred conformation of these mimics, and the determination of their respective disulfide redox potentials.     

A potent, versatile disulfide-reducing agent from aspartic acid

Dithiothreitol (DTT) is the standard reagent for reducing disulfide bonds between and within biological molecules. At neutral pH, however, >99% of DTT thiol groups are protonated and thus unreactive. Herein, we report on (2S)-2-amino-1,4-dimercaptobutane (dithiobutylamine or DTBA), a dithiol that can be synthesized from l-aspartic acid in a few high-yielding steps that are amenable to a large-scale process. DTBA has thiol pK(a) values that are ~1 unit lower than those of DTT and forms a disulfide with a similar E°' value. DTBA reduces disulfide bonds in both small molecules and proteins faster than does DTT. The amino group of DTBA enables its isolation by cation-exchange and facilitates its conjugation. These attributes indicate that DTBA is a superior reagent for reducing disulfide bonds in aqueous solution.     

Determination of penicillamine, penicillamine disulfide and penicillamine-glutathione mixed disulfide by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection

Methodology is described for the simultaneous determination of D-penicillamine, penicillamine disulfide and the penicillamine-glutathione mixed disulfide, as well as glutathione and glutathione disulfide, in human plasma, erythrocytes and urine. The various thiols and disulfides are separated by reversed-phase ion-pairing liquid chromatography with detection by an electrochemical detector with dual gold/mercury amalgam electrodes in series. The thiols are detected at the downstream electrode; the disulfides are reduced at the upstream electrode and then detected as the thiols at the downstream electrode. Detection limits (at a signal-to-noise ratio of 2.0) are in the picomole range for 20 microliters of injected solution for all compounds except penicillamine disulfide, which has a detection limit of 600 pmol in 20 microliters. A convenient method is described for preparation of the penicillamine-glutathione mixed disulfide by thiol/disulfide exchange with standardization of the solution by 1H NMR spectroscopy.     

Preparation of tri- and difluoromethylsilanes via an unusual magnesium metal-mediated reductive tri- and difluoromethylation of chlorosilanes using tri- and difluoromethyl sulfides,sulfoxides, and sulfones

A new and efficient method for the preparation of tri- and difluoromethylsilanes using magnesium metal-mediated reductive tri- and difluoromethylation of chlorosilanes is reported using tri- and difluoromethyl sulfides, sulfoxides, and sulfones. The byproduct of the process is diphenyl disulfide. Since phenyl trifluoromethyl sulfone, sulfoxide, and sulfide are readily prepared from trifluoromethane (CF(3)H) and diphenyl disulfide, the method can be considered to be catalytic in diphenyl disulfide for the preparation of (trifluoromethyl)trimethylsilane (TMS-CF(3)) from non-ozone-depleting trifluoromethane.     

Cation,solvent, and substituent effects on the decay kinetics of alkali metal salts of diaryl disulfide radical anions in nonaqueous solutions

The transient diaryl disulfide radical anions (RSSR^?) were produced in nonaqueous solutions at room temperature by the flash photolysis of a solution of arylthiolate ion pair in the presence of the excess corresponding disulfide. The transient spectra were almost identical with those obtained from γ-radiolysis of the disulfides in 77 K 2-methyl-tetrahydrofuran (MTHF) glassy matrix. The spectra of disulfide radical anions in nonaqueous solutions were changed by cations, solvents, and para-substituents depending on the ion pair properties. The tighter ion pairs showed a shift of absorption band to the shorter wavelength. The disulfide radical anions decay by a unimolecular dissociation reaction to yield thiolate anion and thiyl radical. The decay kinetics were first-order in the initial time region. The rate constants obtained were changed by the counter cations in the order Na⁺ > K⁺ > Cs⁺ > Li⁺, and by solvents. The tighter ion pairs of the disulfide radical anions showed faster dissociation reaction. This is due to stabilization of a transition state with the counter cation.     

双(O,O-二烃基硫代磷酰基)二硫物与二氯化汞的反应

双(O,O-二乙基硫代磷酰基)二硫物(Ⅰ)及双(O,O-二正丁基硫代磷酸基)二硫物(Ⅰ)与二氯化汞于室温下在乙醇中反应,视反应物的摩尔比为1:1或1:2.     

Novel conducting polymer poly[bis(phenylamino)disulfide]: Synthesis,characterization, and properties

A bis(phenylamino)disulfide was prepared through the reaction of S₂Cl₂ with aniline, and its configuration was confirmed with elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), Fourier transform Raman (FT‐Raman), and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. A novel conducting polymer, poly[bis(phenylamino)disulfide] (PPAD), was synthesized from bis(phenylamino)disulfide by both chemical and electrochemical polymerization. The structure of this polymer, in which the side‐chain disulfide bonds were linked to the nitrogen atoms of the main‐chain polyaniline, was characterized with FTIR, FT‐Raman, gel permeation chromatography, electron spectroscopy, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A four‐probe measurement revealed that the electrical conductivity of PPAD was 1.8 × 10^?2 to 2.1 × 10^?3 S cm^?1, depending on the doping agents and the pH of the medium for either chemical synthesis or electrochemical synthesis. The conductivity, molecular weight, and spectroscopic properties of the polymer, in comparison with those of polyaniline, showed decreases in the polaron delocalization, structural order, and doping level of the main chain because of the steric hindrance of side‐chain S? S bonds. The cyclic voltammograms of the polymer and the monomer showed that the redox reactions (doping/undoping processes) of the main chain (π‐conjugated system) occurred in almost the same potential range of ?0.3 to 0.3 V versus an Ag/AgCl (saturated KCl) electrode as that of thiol (thiolate anion)/disulfide of the side chain in PPAD; the bond cleavage (reduction) and formation (oxidation) reactions of the disulfide bond in the polymer became easier and more reversible than those of the monomer. These results suggested that this conducting organodisulfide polymer might be a candidate material for energy‐storage devices such as lithium secondary batteries, proton‐exchange batteries, and electrochemical capacitors. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 2329–2339, 2004     

Transferable potentials for phase equilibria. 8. United-atom description for thiols, sulfides, disulfides, and thiophene

An extension of the transferable potentials for phase equilibria united-atom (TraPPE-UA) force field to thiol, sulfide, and disulfide functionalities and thiophene is presented. In the TraPPE-UA force field, nonbonded interactions are governed by a Lennard-Jones plus fixed point charge functional form. Partial charges are determined through a CHELPG analysis of electrostatic potential energy surfaces derived from ab initio calculations at the HF/6-31g+(d,p) level. The Lennard-Jones well depth and size parameters for four new interaction sites, S (thiols), S(sulfides), S(disulfides), and S(thiophene), were determined by fitting simulation data to pure-component vapor-equilibrium data for methanethiol, dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide, and thiophene, respectively. Configurational-bias Monte Carlo simulations in the grand canonical ensemble combined with histogram-reweighting methods were used to calculate the vapor-liquid coexistence curves for methanethiol, ethanethiol, 2-methyl-1-propanethiol, 2-methyl-2-propanethiol, 2-butanethiol, pentanethiol, octanethiol, dimethyl sulfide, diethyl sulfide, ethylmethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide, diethyl disulfide, and thiophene. Excellent agreement with experiment is achieved, with unsigned errors of less than 1% for saturated liquid densities and less than 3% for critical temperatures. The normal boiling points were predicted to within 1% of experiment in most cases, although for certain molecules (pentanethiol) deviations as large as 5% were found. Additional calculations were performed to determine the pressure-composition behavior of ethanethiol+n-butane at 373.15 K and the temperature-composition behavior of 1-propanethiol+n-hexane at 1.01 bar. In each case, a good reproduction of experimental vapor-liquid equilibrium separation factors is achieved; both of the coexistence curves are somewhat shifted because of overprediction of the pure-component vapor pressures.     

Effect of cysteine on bovine serum albumin (BSA) denaturation induced by solar ultraviolet (UVA, UVB) irradiation.

Long-term exposure to natural sun-light (UVA, UVB) induced fluorescence and caused disulfide bond formation in bovine serum albumin (BSA). The addition of cysteine enhanced the bond formation to such an extent that a solution of BSA was transformed into an insoluble gel. The disulfide bonds in the gels are derived from internal-SH groups of protein. This reaction occurred even if cysteine was added after exposure to ultraviolet (UV)-irradiation. Fluorescent substances seem to be involved in this reaction. On the other hand, low concentrations of cysteine (less than 5 mM) inhibited both fluorescence and disulfide bond formation. The addition of glutathione to BSA produced the same effect as that of cysteine. The addition of thiourea to BSA solution inhibited fluorescence, but did not inhibit disulfide bond formation. We assume that external-SH compounds such as cysteine and glutathione, which have high reactivity with hydroxyl radicals (.OH), act not only as free-radical scavengers, but also as radical mediators in the polymerization of protein through disulfide cross-links induced by UV-irradiation. Solar UVA as well as UVB irradiation are shown to have the same effect on the protein polymerization.     

Design,synthesis, and biological evaluation of largazole derivatives: alteration of the zinc-binding domain

A new series of largazole analogues in which the side chain was replaced with disulfide groups were synthesized, and their biological activities were evaluated. Compound 8 bearing an octyl moiety showed much better selectivity for HDAC1 over HDAC7 than largazole (320-fold). Structure–activity relationships suggested that the length in the disulfide chain of largazole is important for the selectivity toward HDAC1 over HDAC7.     

Characterizing closely spaced, complex disulfide bond patterns in peptides and proteins by liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

Identifying the Cys residues involved in disulfide linkages of peptides and proteins that contain complex disulfide bond patterns is a significant analytical challenge. This is especially true when the Cys residues involved in the disulfide bonds are closely spaced in the primary sequence. Peptides and proteins that contain free Cys residues located near disulfide bonds present the additional problem of disulfide shuffling via the thiol-disulfide exchange reaction. In this paper, we report a convenient method to identify complex disulfide patterns in peptides and proteins using liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS) in combination with partial reduction by tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP). The method was validated using well-characterized peptides and proteins including endothelin, insulin, alpha-conotoxin SI and immunoglobulin G (IgG2a, mouse). Peptide or protein digests were treated with TCEP in the presence of an alkylation reagent, maleimide-biotin (M-biotin) or N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), followed by complete reduction with dithiothreitol and alkylation by iodoacetamide (IAM). Subsequently, peptides that contained alkylated Cys were analyzed by capillary LC/ESI-MS/MS to determine which Cys residues were modified with M-biotin/NEM or IAM. The presence of the alkylating reagent (M-biotin or NEM) during TCEP reduction was found to minimize the occurrence of the thiol-disulfide exchange reaction. A critical feature of the method is the stepwise reduction of the disulfide bonds and the orderly, sequential use of specific alkylating reagents.     

Efficient Catalytic and Thermal Syntheses of Novel Thiadiazole,Triazole, Benzothiazole,and Fused Quinazoline Derivatives

Russian Journal of Organic Chemistry - A thiourea derivative, 4-chloro-N-[(4-chlorophenyl)carbamothioyl]benzamide, was oxidized with iodine in acetic acid to give the corresponding disulfide,...     

Spectrophotometric Determination of bis(O,O-dialkyldithiophosphoryl) disulfides

A new simple method has been developed for determining the bis(O,O-dialkyldithiophosphoryl) disulfide content up to 16 nM/ml with good reproducibility.The procedure is based on the dithiofluorescein—disulfide interchange reaction. The average value of the molar extinction coefficient obtained was 4.1 × 10⁴ ± 2500 liters M⁻¹cm⁻¹.The use of ion-exchange separation seems to be quite satisfactory for determination of this disulfide in the presence of dithiophosphate salts interference.     

Synthesis of PAF,an Antifungal Protein from P. chrysogenum,by Native Chemical Ligation: Native Disulfide Pattern and Fold Obtained upon Oxidative Refolding

The folding of disulfide proteins is of considerable interest because knowledge of this may influence our present understanding of protein folding. However, sometimes even the disulfide pattern cannot be unequivocally determined by the available experimental techniques. For example, the structures of a few small antifungal proteins (PAF, AFP) have been disclosed recently using NMR spectroscopy but with some ambiguity in the actual disulfide pattern. For this reason, we carried out the chemical synthesis of PAF. Probing different approaches, the oxidative folding of the synthetic linear PAF yielded a folded protein that has identical structure and antifungal activity as the native PAF. In contrast, unfolded linear PAF was inactive, a result that may have implications concerning its redox state in the mode of action.     

Inexpensive, one-pot synthesis of unsymmetrical disulfides using 1-chlorobenzotriazole

A new synthesis of unsymmetrical disulfides is described. The reaction of a thiol R1SH with 1-chlorobenzotriazole (BtCl) at -78 degrees C in DCM affords a high-yielding conversion to R1SBt without appreciable formation of the symmetrical disulfide R1SSR1. R1SBt is then reacted with R2SH to form the unsymmetrical disulfide in a one-pot sequence with green character that avoids the use of toxic and harsh oxidizing agents. The methodology has been developed for synthesis of various types of disulfides.     

Diselenolane-Mediated Cellular Uptake: Efficient Cytosolic Delivery of Probes,Peptides, Proteins,Artificial Metalloenzymes and Protein-Coated Quantum Dots

Cyclic oligochalcogenides are emerging as powerful tools to penetrate cells. With disulfide ring tension maximized, selenium chemistry had to be explored next to enhance speed and selectivity of dynamic covalent exchange on the way into the cytosol. We show that diseleno lipoic acid (DiSeL) delivers a variety of relevant substrates. DiSeL-driven uptake of artificial metalloenzymes enables bioorthogonal fluorophore uncaging within cells. Binding of a bicyclic peptide, phalloidin, to actin fibers evinces targeted delivery to the cytosol. Automated tracking of diffusive compared to directed motility and immobility localizes 79 % of protein-coated quantum dots (QDs) in the cytosol, with little endosomal capture (0.06 %). These results suggest that diselenolanes might act as molecular walkers along disulfide tracks in locally denatured membrane proteins, surrounded by adaptive micellar membrane defects. Miniscule and versatile, DiSeL tags are also readily available, stable, soluble, and non-toxic.     

Rational Design of Catechol-2, 3-dioxygenase for Improving the Enzyme Characteristics

Catechol-2, 3-dioxygenase (C23O) from Pseudomonas sp. CGMCC2953 identified in our laboratory, which is one of the key enzymes responsible for phenanthrene biodegradation, was expected to get better characteristics tolerant to environment for its further application. With the aim of improving the enzyme properties by introducing intermolecular disulfide bonds, X-ray structure of a C23O from Pseudomonas putida MT-2, a highly conserved homologous with the C23O from Pseudomonas sp. CGMCC2953, was directly used to find the potential sites for forming disulfide bonds between two monomers of the target C23O. Two sites, Ala229 and His294, were identified and mutated to cysteine, respectively, by using site mutagenesis. The expected disulfide bond between these two CYS residues was confirmed with both molecular modeling and experimental results. The optimum temperature of the mutated enzyme was widened from 40 to 40∼50 °C. The mutated C23O became more alkalescency stable compared with the wild-type enzyme, e.g., 75% of the maximal enzyme activity retained even under pH 9.5 while 50% residue for the wild-type one. Improvement of thermostability of the mutated C230 with the redesigned disulfide was also confirmed.     

Rhodium-catalyzed arylthiolation reaction of nitroalkanes, diethyl malonate, and 1,2-diphenylethanone with diaryl disulfides: control of disfavored equilibrium reaction

In the presence of catalytic amounts of RhH(PPh₃)₄ and 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe), 1-nitroalkanes reacted with a diaryl disulfide giving 1-arylthio-1-nitroalkanes in air. The equilibrium to form thermodynamically disfavored products was shifted by the rhodium-catalyzed oxidation of thiols to disulfides and water. The thiolation reaction of cyclic nitroalkanes proceeded in high yields provided that suitable diaryl disulfides were employed depending on the substrate: di(p-chlorophenyl) disulfide was used for the thiolation reaction of 1-nitroalkanes, 1-nitrocyclopentane and 1-nitrocycloheptane with acidic α-protons (pK_a 16 and 17); di(p-methoxyphenyl) disulfide for 1-nitrocyclobutane and 1-nitrocyclohexane with less acidic α-protons (pK_a ca. 18). Related reactivities were observed in the thiolation reactions of malonate and 1,2-diphenylethanone.