Tryptophan chemical oxidation

Brevicolline.—The /3-carboline part of the plant alkaloid brevicolline (114) has been shown to derive from tryptophan (94) and pyruvic acid.37 Putrescine (4) and related compounds provide the pyrrolidine ring.38 A key intermediate in brevicolline biosynthesis is likely to be (113), derived by oxidative decarboxylation of (111), which in turn is formed through the condensation of (94) with pyruvic acid condensation of (113) and (112) (formed from putrescine) would lead to (114). This has been supported by successfully mimicking the biogenetic sequence, starting with the chemical oxidative decarboxylation of (111).39... 

From the historical point of view, interest in the chemical oxidation of tryptophan and related indole compounds was stimulated by attempts to elucidate the fate of tryptophan in animal metabolism. Biological hydroxylations and oxidative degradations of the indole nucleus represent main steps in the metabolic pathway of tryptophan (see Section II.4). 

Relatively numerous chemical studies have been reported on the photooxidation of free tryptophan, rather than of tryptophan-containing model peptides, the chief reason being that from a practical aspect it is usually easier to detect and identify the corresponding photoproducts. However, as previously stated, in relation to the chemical oxidation of tryptophan (Section III. 1.1), the oxidation path of free tryptophan should not necessarily parallel that of tryptophan in proteins. 

Huvaere, K., and Skibsted, L. H. (2009) Light-Induced Oxidation of Tryptophan and Histidine. Reactivity of Aromatic N-Heterocycles toward Triplet-Excited Flavins, Journal of American and Chemical Society, Vol. 131, (May 2009) pp. 8049-8060, ISSN 0002-7863. 

There is some information concerning the reaction of ozone with chemicals under aqueous conditions. The information available suggests that double-bond cleavage takes place, just as it does under nonaqueous conditions, except that ozonides are not formed. Instead, the zwitterionk intermediate reacts with water, producing an aldehyde and hydrogen peroxide. In addition to double-bond cleavage, a number of other oxidations are possible. Mudd et showed that the susceptibility of amino acids is in the order cysteine, tryptophan, methionine. 

An excellent review on protein hydrolysis for amino acid composition analysis has been published by Eountoulakis and Lahm [190], Hydrolysis can be performed by either chemical (under either acidic or basic conditions) or enzymatic means. The acidic hydrolysis itself can be carried out in a liquid or a gas-phase mode. The conventional acid hydrolysis uses 6M HCl for 20-24 h at 110°C under vacuum [200], In these conditions, asparagine and glutamine are completely hydrolyzed to aspartic acid and glutamic acid, respectively. Tryptophan is completely destroyed (particularly in the presence of high concentrations of carbohydrate), while cysteine and sometimes methionine are partially oxidized. Tyrosine, serine, and threonine are partially destroyed or hydrolyzed and correction factors have to be applied for precise quantification [190,201],... 

Riboflavin (vitamin Bj) is chemically specified as a 7,8-dimethyl-10-(T-D-ribityl) isoalloxazine (Eignre 19.22). It is a precnrsor of certain essential coenzymes, such as flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin-adenine dinucleotide (FAD) in these forms vitamin Bj is involved in redox reactions, such as hydroxylations, oxidative carboxylations, dioxygenations, and the reduction of oxygen to hydrogen peroxide. It is also involved in the biosynthesis of niacin-containing coenzymes from tryptophan. 

Aromatic amino acids including tryptophan (Trp) (106) and tyrosine (101) are highly susceptible to various physical, chemical and biochemical one-electron oxidants they are... 

Early studies have shown that tryptophan, tyrosine, histidine, methionine and cysteine, either as free amino acids or as components of peptides, are excellent substrates for O2 oxidation reactions. Usually, reaction of O2 with amino acids is mostly described in terms of chemical quenching with the exception of tryptophan, for which collisional deactivation as the result of physical quenching is not neghgible. The rate constants of O2 toward the main reactive amino acids that show a strong solvent dependence are reported in Table 2 for neutral aqueous solutions with values within the range 0.8-3.7... 

Oxidation of two out of 13 tryptophan residues in a cellulase from Penicillium notatum resulted in a complete loss of enzymic activity (59). There was an interaction between cellobiose and tryptophan residues in the enzyme. Participation of histidine residues is also suspected in the catalytic mechanism since diazonium-l-H-tetrazole inactivated the enzyme. A xylanase from Trametes hirsuta was inactivated by N-bromosuc-cinimide and partially inactivated by N-acetylimidazole (60), indicating the possible involvement of tryptophan and tyrosine residues in the active site. As with many chemical modification experiments, it is not possible to state definitively that certain residues are involved in the active site since inactivation might be caused by conformational changes in the enzyme molecule produced by the change in properties of residues distant from the active site. However, from a summary of the available evidence it appears that, for many / -(l- 4) glycoside hydrolases, acidic and aromatic amino acid residues are involved in the catalytic site, probably at the active and binding sites, respectively. 

The chemical modifications of the tryptophan residues lead to a decrease in the nutritive value of proteins as observed in autoclaved soja meals (124), heated meats (125), heated casein (126), and heated skim milk (122) this last reference is probably the most reliable work published in this field. The nutritional effects and the metabolic transit of heat-treated and oxidized tripeptide (gly-try—gly) have been investigated (123,132,137) recently only the metabolic transit study is related here. 

Such chemical changes may lead to compounds that are not hydrolyzable by intestinal enzymes or to modifications of the peptide side chains that render certain amino acids unavailable. Mild heat treatments in the presence of water can significantly improve the protein s nutritional value in some cases. Sulfur-containing amino acids may become more available and certain antinutritional factors such as the trypsin inhibitors of soybeans may be deactivated. Excessive heat in the absence of water can be detrimental to protein quality for example, in fish proteins, tryptophan, arginine, methionine, and lysine may be damaged. A number of chemical reactions may take place during heat treatment including decomposition, dehydration of serine and threonine, loss of sulfur from cysteine, oxidation of cysteine and methio-... 

It is necessary that an antioxidant protects cells at all stages of oxidative stress, and therefore an antioxidant should be able to scavenge the secondary radicals produced by the reaction of primary radicals with biomolecules. Radiation chemists designed methods to study reactions of secondary radicals from amino acids of proteins and base and sugar radicals of DNA with antioxidants.The most commonly employed aromatic amino acid radicals generated by radiation chemical experiments are the indolyl radicals of tryptophan (TRP ), the... 

The changes in the ultraviolet spectrum of creatine phosphokinase (Fig. 15) on treatment with NBS point to the presence of thirteen to fourteen tryptophan residues per molecule compared with eleven to twelve tryptophan residues suggested by chemical analysis (Friedberg, 1956). Although the oxidation of the tryptophan residues in the molecule seems to be complete, the amount of cleavage of peptide bonds next to tryptophan is very small. 

The biotransformation of the toxic oil contaminant PAP to the L-tryptophan contaminant PAA may link TOS and EMS to a common chemical agent, namely PAA. Both PAP and PAA are metabolized further to the p-hydroxylated forms, FIPAP and FIPAA (Figure 7). Such compounds readily autoxi-dize to the benzoquinoneimine, which is reactive toward nucleophiles such as the sulfhydryl and amino moieties present on many biological molecules. Thus, upon oxidization, FIPAA and FIPAP may react with macromolecules as a hapten to form immunogenic targets. HPAA possesses some chemical properties... 

The occurrence of heat- and chemical-induced transformations of tryptophan and the nutritional and toxicologic consequences suggest a need for additional research to define possible approaches to prevent or minimize the formation of antinutritional and toxic tryptophan condensation and oxidation products in foods. The possible beneficial effects of antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, carotenes, flavonoids, indole derivatives, selenium compounds, and sulfur amino acids in enhancing the stability of tryptophan in foods need to be investigated. 

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