Thiols to disulfides

The most important oxidation from a biochemical perspective is the conversion of thiols to disulfides... 

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. 

Readjust the pH to the optimal value for the bioconjugate application to be done using the generated thiols. Use the reduced peptide immediately to prevent reoxidation of the thiols to disulfides. 

The 3-methyl- and 3-phenyl-l,2,3-oxadiazolinium salts 96 and 97 are capable of oxidizing thiols to disulfides <1995MI817>. New dihydro-1,2,3-benzoxadiazoles, prepared by the reaction of 1,2-benzoquinones with diethyl azodicarboxylate (DEAD) or diisopropyl azodicarboxylate (DIAD) in the presence of triphenylphosphine (Section 5.03.9.4), have been shown to undergo catalytic hydrogenolysis to give phenols (Equation 12) <20050L5139>. 

Selenoxides and telluroxides also function as mild oxidants for the conversion of thiols to disulfides as shown in equations (16) and (17) for the reaction of thiophenol with diphenylselenoxide (47) and diphenyltelluroxide (48). Mechanistically, the oxidation of thiols to disulfides with selenoxides and telluroxides is a multi-step process, which takes advantage of the ease with which tellurium(IV) and selenium(IV) species form trigonal bipryamidal... 

Fig. 21 General mechanism for the oxidation of thiols to disulfides with selenoxides or telluroxides.

When 2,5-diphenylfuran was treated with potassium peroxydisulfate, 4-methylquinoline was obtained in quantitative yield. Peroxydisulfate was also found to be a very efficient reagent for the conversion of thiols to disulfides. Sulfides can be selectively converted into the corresponding sulfoxides in the presence of potassium peroxydisulfate in acetic acid. ... 

A reasonable mechanism for the iodine oxidation of 5-Trt cysteine peptides is given in Scheme 6. 45 Reaction of iodine with the divalent sulfur atom leads to the iodosulfonium ion 5 which is then transformed to the sulfenyl iodide 6 and the trityl cation. Sulfenyl iodides are also postulated as intermediates in the iodine oxidation of thiols to disulfides. The disulfide bond is then formed by disproportionation of two sulfenyl iodides or by reaction between the electrophilic sulfur atom of R -S-I and the nucleophilic S-atom of a second R -S-Trt molecule. The proposed mechanism suggests that any sulfur substitution (i.e., thiol protecting group) capable of forming a stabilized species on cleavage, such as the trityl cation, can be oxidatively cleaved by iodine. 

Although the oxidation of thiols to disulfides in the presence of a catalyst is a reaction of commercial interest, it is only comparatively recently that the marked effects of impurities on the system has been realized. Wallace and co-workers (13, 14) have studied the metal-catalyzed oxidation of some thiols in the presence of a few metal ions and complexes under comparable conditions, and they have suggested a general mechanism for the reaction, based on Reactions 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7. The rate of reaction was found to depend on the chemical nature and the physical state of the catalyst. The reaction was suggested to involve metal complexes in the solid state (13). 

In summary, the oxidation of thiols to disulfides is quantitative in aqueous alkaline solution and may best be effected at high oxygen pressures in the presence of a catalyst. The catalyst should dissolve in the alkaline solutions, and of the simple metal salts, the addition of copper, cobalt, and nickel results in the most effective catalysis. 

Catalysts of this type are also extraordinarily reactive for the oxidative coupling of thiols to disulfides, and the reaction is quantitative in a wide variety of organic solvents. In this case, the analogous first step would be... 

Kinetic Studies Provide Only Limited Mechanistic Information. While such studies are invaluable and frequently indicate the nature of pre-rate-determining steps, they provide almost no information concerning such vital fast steps as electron transfers and rearrangements. For example, despite extensive studies of the kinetics of acetaldehyde and vinyl acetate syntheses, it is clear only that olefin, nucleophile, and palladium combine in a complex. The nature of the rate-determining step as well as the details of post-rate determining product forming steps remains uncertain (7,94). In some cases—e.g., the metal-catalyzed autoxi-dation of thiols to disulfides—re-oxidation of metal to its catalytically... 

In 1966, it was found that stoichiometric amounts of Fe203 were capable of oxidizing acyclic thiols to disulfides in hydrocarbon media at 55 °C (Scheme 3.47) [149]. 

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