Glutathione reductant

Oxidation in the pentose phosphate pathway for the formation of NADPH (necessary for biosynthetic reactions such as fatty acid synthesis, glutathione reduction, and other NADPFI-utilizing detoxification reactions)... 

Disulfides. As shown in Figure 4, the and h-chains of insulin are connected by two disulfide bridges and there is an intrachain cycHc disulfide link on the -chain (see Insulin and other antidiabetic drugs). Vasopressin [9034-50-8] and oxytocin [50-56-6] also contain disulfide links (48). Oxidation of thiols to disulfides and reduction of the latter back to thiols are quite common and important in biological systems, eg, cysteine to cystine or reduced Hpoic acid to oxidized Hpoic acid. Many enzymes depend on free SH groups for activation—deactivation reactions. The oxidation—reduction of glutathione (Glu-Cys-Gly) depends on the sulfhydryl group from cysteine. 

The key to hexavalent chromium s mutagenicity and possible carcinogenicity is the abiHty of this oxidation state to penetrate the cell membrane. The Cr(VI) Species promotes DNA strand breaks and initiates DNA—DNA and DNA-protein cross-links both in cell cultures and in vivo (105,112,128—130). The mechanism of this genotoxic interaction may be the intercellular reduction of Cr(VI) in close proximity to the nuclear membrane. When in vitro reductions of hexavalent chromium are performed by glutathione, the formation of Cr(V) and glutathione thiyl radicals are observed, and these are beHeved to be responsible for the formation of the DNA cross-links (112). 

This thiol-disulfide interconversion is a key part of numerous biological processes. WeTJ see in Chapter 26, for instance, that disulfide formation is involved in defining the structure and three-dimensional conformations of proteins, where disulfide "bridges" often form cross-links between q steine amino acid units in the protein chains. Disulfide formation is also involved in the process by which cells protect themselves from oxidative degradation. A cellular component called glutathione removes potentially harmful oxidants and is itself oxidized to glutathione disulfide in the process. Reduction back to the thiol requires the coenzyme flavin adenine dinucleotide (reduced), abbreviated FADH2. 

Polidoro G, Dillio C, Arduini A, et al. 1982. Glutathione peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase activities in human fetal tissues. Inability of acidic forms of glutathione S-transferase to catalyze the reduction of organic hydroperoxides. Biochem Int 4 637-645. 

Kessi J, KW Hanselmann (2004) Similarities between the abiotic reduction of selenite with glutathione and the dissimilatory reaction mediated by Rhodospirillum rubrum and Escherichia coli. J Biol Chem 279 50662-50669. 

The degradation of vinyl chloride and ethene has been examined in Mycobacterium sp. strain JS 60 (Coleman and Spain 2003) and in Nocardioides sp. strain JS614 (Mattes et al. 2005). For both substrates, the initially formed epoxides underwent reaction with reduced coenzyme M and, after dehydrogenation and formation of the coenzyme A esters, reductive loss of coenzyme M acetate resulted in the production of 5-acetyl-coenzyme A. The reductive fission is formally analogous to that in the glutathione-mediated reaction. 

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