Cysteine copper complexes

The degradation of tetrachloromethane by a strain of Pseudomonas sp. presents a number of exceptional features. Although was a major product from the metabolism of CCI4, a substantial part of the label was retained in nonvolatile water-soluble residues (Lewis and Crawford 1995). The nature of these was revealed by the isolation of adducts with cysteine and A,A -dimethylethylenediamine, when the intermediates that are formally equivalent to COClj and CSClj were trapped—presumably formed by reaction of the substrate with water and a thiol, respectively. Further examination of this strain classified as Pseudomonas stutzeri strain KC has illuminated novel details of the mechanism. The metabolite pyridine-2,6-dithiocarboxylic acid (Lee et al. 1999) plays a key role in the degradation. Its copper complex produces trichloromethyl and thiyl radicals, and thence the formation of CO2, CS2, and COS (Figure 7.64) (Lewis et al. 2001). 

A still more complicated reaction is the chemiluminescent oxidation of sodium hydrogen sulfide, cysteine, and gluthathione by oxygen in the presence of heavy metal catalysts, especially copper ions 60>. When copper is used in the form of the tetrammin complex Cu(NH3) +, the chemiluminescence is due to excited-singlet oxygen when the catalyst is copper flavin mononucleotide (Cu—FMN), additional emission occurs from excited flavin mononucleotide. From absorption spectroscopic measurements J. Stauff and F. Nimmerfall60> concluded that the first reaction step consists in the addition of oxygen to the copper complex ... 

Oxygen radical anion 02( > is formed in an equilibrium reaction of the copper-cysteine-oxygen complex and a copper-cysteine complex ... 

Oxygen radical anion forms excited-singlet oxygen in different pathways, e.g. by a reaction with copper-cysteine-oxygen complex to yield the excimer (02)2- The computerized kinetic equations derived from this scheme allowed predictions in respect of the chemiluminescence intensity as a function of the oxygen and cysteine concentrations and as a function of time these were satisfactorily confirmed by the ex-... 

Cysteine and cystine has been determined in seawater by a method based on cathode stripping voltammetry of the copper complex [327]. 

Kundo, N.N., Keier, N. P. Catalytic Activity of Organic Copper Complexes in Cysteine Oxidation. Kinetika Katal. 8, 796 (1967). C. A. 68, 30008e (1968). 

Figure 3 Binuclear copper complexes in octopus hemocyanin (a) and sweet potato catechol oxidase (b) showing the thioether linkage between a cysteine residue and a directly coordinating histidine imidazole. Heteroatoms (N,0,S) are indicated by a shaded quadrant. [ortep-III views based on PDB ID 1JS8 and IBTl]...

NO, Nitrogen oxide, iridium complex, 21 104 NO2SC3H7, L-Cysteine, gold complex, 21 31 NO3C3H7, Serine, copper complex, 21 115 NFPtSe2C24H28, Platinum(II), (A. /V-diethyldi-selenocarbamato)methyl(triphenylphos-phine)-, 21 10... 

As with all antiarthritic drugs, the situation is not clear. Biochemical effects of copper are general, and no one target, such as a particular protein, is recognizable. The copper complexes are presumably a means of further increasing the copper content, because the species are expected to be rather labile. The introduction of exogenous copper will also affect thiol content and redox state of the cell, and some biochemical responses listed above may be a consequence of this altered state. Besides ceruloplasmin and albumin, major binding sites of Cu(II) are histidine and cysteine [94, 95] and some possibilities for the mechanism of action have been summarized [64]. 

Quantitative ESR measurements confirmed that almost all of the total quantity of copper is present as [Cu(RS)] complex during the reaction (65). The kinetic data were consistent with a rate law which is zeroth-order in cysteine concentration ... 

The effect of non-participating ligands on the copper catalyzed autoxidation of cysteine was studied in the presence of glycylglycine-phosphate and catecholamines, (2-R-)H2C, (epinephrine, R = CH(OH)-CH2-NHCH3 norepinephrine, R = CH(OH)-CH2-NH2 dopamine, R = CH2-CH2-NH2 dopa, R = CH2-CH(COOH)-NH2) by Hanaki and co-workers (68,69). Typically, these reactions followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics and the autoxidation rate displayed a bell-shaped curve as a function of pH. The catecholamines had no kinetic effects under anaerobic conditions, but catalyzed the autoxidation of cysteine in the following order of efficiency epinephrine = norepinephrine > dopamine > dopa. The concentration and pH dependencies of the reaction rate were interpreted by assuming that the redox active species is the [L Cun(RS-)] ternary complex which is formed in a very fast reaction between CunL and cysteine. Thus, the autoxidation occurs at maximum rate when the conditions are optimal for the formation of this species. At relatively low pH, the ternary complex does not form in sufficient concentration. 

Mn2+, D.F.P.-ase is further activated by cysteine, histidine, thiolhistidine, and serine, histamine and 2 2 -dipyridyl. Reagents reacting with metal ions, SH groups and carbonyl groups inhibit D.F.P.-ase activity. Work is proceeding on the further elucidation of such mechanisms.1 In a somewhat similar connexion attention is called to the fact that the non-enzymic hydrolysis of D.F.P. is accelerated by heavy metals and their complexes, in particular by copper chelates of ethylene diamine, o-phenanthroline, 2 2 -dipyridyl and histidine.2... 

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