Cystine mixtures

Action of nitrous acid. To a few ml. of 20% NaNO, solution add a few drops of cold dil. acetic acid. Pour the mixture into a cold aqueous solution of glycine, and note the brisk evolution of nitrogen. NH CH COOH -h HNO2 = HO CH2COOH + N + H O. Owing to the insolubility of cystine in acetic acid use a suspension in dU. acetic acid for this test. In each case care must be taken not to confuse the evolution of nitrogen with any possible thermal decomposition of the nitrous acid cf. footnote, p, 360). 

The sulfur amino acid content of soy protein can be enhanced by preparing plasteins from soy protein hydrolysate and sources of methionine or cystine, such as ovalbumin hydrolysate (plastein AB), wool keratin hydrolysate (plastein AC), or L-methionine ethyl ester [3082-77-7] (alkaU saponified plastein) (153). Typical PER values for a 1 2 mixture of plastein AC and soybean, and a 1 3 mixture of alkah-saponified plastein and soybean protein, were 2.86 and 3.38, respectively, as compared with 1.28 for the soy protein hydrolysate and 2.40 for casein. 

Hair straightening compositions based on mixtures of ammonium bisulfite [10192-30-0] and urea [57-13-6] have been introduced and have found some apphcation in the Caucasian hair market. The reformulation of the cystine cross-links in bisulfite-reduced hair is best accompHshed by a rinse, pH 8—10, rather than by the use of oxidizing agents (66). 

The first reductive kinetic resolution of racemic sulphoxides was reported by Balenovic and Bregant. They found that L-cysteine reacted with racemic sulphoxides to produce a mixture of L-cystine, sulphide and non-reduced optically active starting sulphoxide (equation 147). Mikojajczyk and Para reported that the reaction of optically active phosphonothioic acid 268 with racemic sulphoxides used in a 1 2 ratio gave the non-reduced optically active sulphoxides, however, with a low optical purity (equation 148). It is interesting to note that a clear relationship was found between the chirality of the reducing P-thioacid 268 and the recovered sulphoxide. Partial asymmetric reduction of racemic sulphoxides also occurs when a complex of LiAlH with chiral alcohols , as well as a mixture of formamidine sulphinic acid with chiral amines, are used as chiral reducing systems. ... 

L-Cysteine is a high value a-amino acid used world-wide in a scale of 1200-15001 year-1 as additive in foodstuffs, cosmetics or as intermediate or active agent (as antidote to several snake venoms) in the pharmaceutical industry. Chemical routes generally lack the efficiency of electrochemical techniques, or they produce mixtures of l- and d- forms rather than the L-isomer. The most common electrochemical route is the cathodic reduction of L-Cystine in acid (usually HC1) solution to produce the stable hydrochloride. In Table 10, the charateristic data for a laboratory bench, laboratory pilot and a product pilot reaction using a DEM filter press are compared [13]. A production scale study was carried out in a filterpress reactor divided by a cation exchange membrane with a total area of 10.5 m2. The typical product inventory was 450 kg/24-hour batch time. For more details see Ref. [13]. 

Optically active sulfoxides can also be obtained when a racemic sulfoxide is reduced with an insufficient amount of a chiral reagent. Balenovic and Bregant (65) found that L-cysteine reacted with racemic sulfoxides to produce a mixture of sulfide, L-cystine, and nonreduced optically active starting sulfoxide. Mikoikjczyk and Para... 

The first reaction is p-elimination in cysteine, serine, phosphoserine, and threonine residues due to attack by hydroxide ion, leading to the formation of very reactive dehydroalanine (DHA). In a cystine residue, this results in rupturing of the disulfide bond and liberation of a sulfide ion and free sulfur (Figure 13.4). Nucleophilic additions of the s-amino group of the protein-bound lysine to the double bond of DHA residue causes crosslinking of the polypeptide chain. After hydrolysis, a mixture of L-lysino-L-alanine and L-lysino-D-alanine, with probably a small proportion of dl and dd isomers,... 

The separation of cystine and tyrosine as they are obtained by hydrolysis with hydrochloric acid was described by Morner in I901. The protein—hair, keratin from horn, eggshells, etc.—was boiled with five times its quantity of 13 per cent hydrochloric acid under a reflux condenser on a water bath for six to seven days. The solution was then decolorised with charcoal and evaporated in vacuo, and the residue dissolved in 60 to 70 per cent, alcohol. The two acids then crystallised out on neutralising with soda, and were separated by fractional crystallisation from ammonia if much tyrosine was present it separated out first, but if cystine exceeded tyrosine in quantity this compound crystallised out first the remainder was only separated with difficulty. Embden separated the mixture of the two acids by means of very dilute nitric acid, in which tyrosine is very easily soluble, but cystine with difficulty. Their separation may also be effected by precipitation with mercuric sulphate in 5 per cent, sulphuric acid solution in which the mercury compound of tyrosine is soluble (Hopkins and Cole). 

The reduced form of Na+, K+-ATPase inhibitor-I (10) was obtained by treatment of the protected peptide synthesized by the soln procedure with HF, followed by reaction with Hg(OAc)2. After purification of the crude product on Sephadex G-25, the reduced peptide (110 mg) was dissolved in 0.1 M NH4OAc buffer (1L, pH 7.8) at a peptide concentration of 0.018 mM and then stirred at rt. After 24 h, the major peak in the HPLC, which coeluted with the natural product, corresponded to 55% of the product distribution. The mixture was acidified to pH 3 with AcOH and 10 was purified by RP-HPLC. When the oxidation was carried out in the presence redox reagents at a peptide/GSH/GSSG ratio of 1 100 10, after 24 h the major oxidation product increased to 69%. The mixture was acidified with AcOH and the product (10) isolated by preparative HPLC yield 20%. The product was characterized by MALDI-TOF-MS and amino acid analysis a combination of enzymatic peptide mapping and synthetic approaches were applied to assign the cystine connectivities. 

Peptide bonds are cleaved in a nonselective, but not in a completely random manner. Based on anchimeric side-chain assistance, steric factors, and bond strains, acid-labile peptide bonds are predicted to include sites containing Asp, Glu, Ser, Thr, Asn, Gin, Gly, and ProJ22l The disulfide topologies of circulin B and cyclopsychotride, backbone-cyclized peptides with three disulfide bonds, were determined by partial hydrolysis for 5 hours.[22 Occasionally, the bond between adjacent half-cystine residues is cleaved due to the nonselective nature of the mechanism of partial acid hydrolysis.[21] By this procedure, in all cases, a complex mixture of peptide fragments is produced which requires careful chromatographic separation by RP-HPLC for subsequent analysis by mass spectrometry (see Section 6.1.6.2.7). 

V,/V -Bis(benzyloxycarbonyl)-L-cystine diethyl ester (2.26 g, 4.0 mmol) was suspended in dry benzene (10 mL) and P(NEt2)3 (1.2 g, 4.8 mmol) was added slowly to the suspension. The mixture was stirred for 1 h, during which time the soln cleared. The solvent was removed and the residue chromatographed on silica gel. The phosphine sulfide was first eluted with hexane/EtOAc (9 1) then the title product with hexane/EtOAc (1 1) yield 1.83g (86%) mp 63-67°C [a]D25 -15.9 (c 1.1, MeOH). 

Critical appraisal of the method, 23,26 using attempts to synthesize nonsymmetrically substituted lanthionines, resulted in rearrangement of the products, presumably due to phosphine-catalyzed disproportionation of the unsymmetrical disulfides. This reaction should proceed more rapidly than the desulfurization process and is thought to occur because sulfur extrusion takes place via a reversible reaction by recombination of ionic intermediates (Scheme 3). 21-22-24 Thus, the reaction of nonsymmetrical cystine derivatives results in the formation of a mixture of three different lanthionines. 

An early synthesis of A5-palmitoy]-.S -[2,3-bis(palmitoyloxy)propyl]cysteine employed cysteine methyl ester, however, this leads to difficulties in the saponification step of the tri-palmitoylated residue. 96 The optimized procedure, in which the cystine di-fert-butyl ester is used, 90 is outlined in Scheme 6 after N-acylation with palmitoyl chloride, the ester is reduced to the cysteine derivative for S-alkylation with l-bromopropane-2,3-diol to yield chirally defined isomers if optically pure bromo derivatives are used. Esterification of the hydroxy groups is best carried out with a 1.25-fold excess of palmitic acid, DCC, and DMAP. The use of a larger excess of palmitoyl chloride is not recommended due to purification problems. The diastereomeric mixture can be separated by silica gel chromatography using CH2Cl2/EtOAc (20 1) as eluent and the configuration was assigned by comparison with an optically pure sample obtained with 2R)- -bromopropane-2,3-diol. 

The same authors (G8, G7) also found very substantial decreases in riboflavin (approx. 80%), and niacin (P9) fared little better. When mixtures were irradiated unusual events occurred. Riboflavin and ascorbic acid were each protected by niacin. Addition of cystine or cysteine apparently sensitized the niacin (P10). Since initial rates were not given, and the doses were considerably above the oxygen breakpoint (Sec. IIIA2), no mechanistic interpretation is possible. There also appears to be some doubt about the reliability of the colormetric assay used by these workers. 

The linearity of the AAA was tested with an aqueous mixture. In general the assay was linear up to 2500 pmol/1, for glutamine even 5000 pmol/1. Some amino acids were tested at a lower level (cystine, taurine, citrulline) and were found to be linear up to 625-1250 pmol/1. 

A soln of reduced glutathione (H-yGlu-Cys-Gly-OH 5.2 mg, 0.017mmol) and 2 (6.9mg, 0.029 mmol) in 50% aq TFA (1 mL) was kept at rt for 24 h. The mixture was concentrated and the residue dissolved in 10% aq AcOH (1 mL). The soln was then applied to a Sephadex G-25 SF column (3 x 54 cm), equilibrated, and eluted with 10% aq AcOH. The product was located in the effluent by spectrophotometry, the UV absorption being similar to that of tryptathionine. The relevant fractions were combined and lyophilized. The product was further purified by a second gel filtration yield 5 mg (58%). Amino acid analysis of an acid hydrolyzate with TosOH 10 gave Glu 1.00, Gly 0.98, Cys 0.70, oxindolylalanine 1.08, and traces of cystine. 

The amide bonds in peptides and proteins can be hydrolyzed in strong acid or base Treatment of a peptide or protein under either of these conditions yields a mixture of the constituent amino acids. Neither acid- nor base-catalyzed hydrolysis of a protein leads to ideal results because both tend to destroy some constituent ammo acids. Acid-catalyzed hydrolysis destroys tryptophan and cysteine, causes some loss of serine and threonine, and converts asparagine and glutamine to aspartic acid and glutamic acid, respectively. Base-catalyzed hydrolysis leads to destruction of serine, threonine, cysteine, and cystine and also results in racemization of the free amino acids. Because acid-catalyzed hydrolysis is less destructive, it is often the method of choice. The hydrolysis procedure consists of dissolving the protein sample in aqueous acid, usually 6 M HC1, and heating the solution in a sealed, evacuated vial at 100°C for 12 to 24 hours. 

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