N-Acetyl homocysteine thiolactone

Modification of Amines with N-Acetyl Homocysteine Thiolactone... 

Thiolation of peptides and other small molecules containing amines proceeds easily with N-acetyl homocysteine thiolactone. However, protein modification often results in much lower yields unless the reaction is done for extended periods at pH 10-11. 

Add N-acetyl homocysteine thiolactone (Aldrich) to the bicarbonate reaction mixture to obtain a concentration representing a 10- to 20-fold excess over the amount of amines present. For protein thiolation, add the same molar excess of thiolactone reagent to the water reaction medium, and then slowly add an equivalent molar quantity of silver nitrate (AgNO j). Maintain the pH at 7.0-7.5 with periodic addition of NaOH. 

Figure 1.68 N-Acetyl homocysteine thiolactone spontaneously reacts with amine groups on proteins to create sulfhydryl groups.

Remove unreacted N-acetyl homocysteine thiolactone and reaction by-products by gel filtration or dialysis against lOmM sodium phosphate, 0.15M NaCl, lOmM EDTA, pH 7.2. Other buffers suitable for individual protein stability may be used as desired. For the silver nitrate-containing reaction, removal of the silver-thiourea complex may be done by adsorption onto Dowex 50, and the protein subsequently eluted from the resin by 1M thiourea. Removal of the thiourea then may be done by gel filtration or dialysis. 

Immobilized dihydrolipoamide (thioctic acid) (Gorecki and Patchornick, 1973 Gorecki and Patchornick, 1975) and immobilized N-acetyl-homocysteine thiolactone (Eldjarn and Jellum, 1963 Jellum, 1964) are the two most commonly used immobilized disulfide reductants. In addition, immobilized TCEP provides a reducing matrix that is free of thiols (Thermo Fisher). Such immobilized reductants successfully can be used to reduce many types of biological disulfides, including small molecules like oxidized glutathione and bovine insulin. They... 

C. Ferris, M. Casas, M.-J. Lucero, M.-V. de Paz and M.-R. Jim nez-Castellanos, Synthesis and characterization of a novel chitosan-N-acetyl-homocysteine thiolactone polymer using MES buffer, Carbohydr. Polym., Ill 125-132, 2014. 

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