Tryptophan hydroperoxide formation

Cobaltn-Schiff base complexes, e.g. Co(salen),567 Co(acacen)568 and cobalt(II) porphyrins,569 e.g. Co(TPP), are effective catalysts for the selective oxygenation of 3-substituted indoles to keto amides (equation 249), a reaction which can be considered as a model for the heme-containing enzyme tryptophan-2,3-dioxygenase (equation 21).66 This reaction has been shown to proceed via a ternary complex, Co-02-indole, with probable structure (175), which is converted into indolenyl hydroperoxide (176). Decomposition of (176) to the keto amide (174) readily occurs in the presence of Co(TPP), presumably via formation of a dioxetane intermediate (177).569,56 Catalytic oxygenolysis of flavonols readily occurs in the presence of Co(salen) and involves a loss of one mole of CO (equation 251).570... 

Peroxynitrite, like other oxidants, reacts with proteins, first oxidizing cysteine methionine and tryptophan residues (A7). The reaction products are sulfones, carbonyl moieties, and dityrosines (K23, M29). Formation of protein hydroperoxides and protein fragmentation was also observed (B7, G6). Nitric oxide induces oxidation of methionine residues, thus effecting oxidative damage to proteins (Cl 1). It also reacts with Fe-S clusters of aconitase (D15), though in most cases it is difficult to assess whether these effects are produced by the NO itself, or rather by a more reactive secondary product such as peroxynitrite (C5). At physiological... 

Lipoxygenase (LOX) converts polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as linoleic and linolenic acids, to lipid hydroperoxides (Figure 2)(52,73,74). The lipid hydroperoxides then form hydroperoxide radicals, epoxides, and/or are degraded to form malondialdehyde. These products are also strongly electrophilic, and can destroy individual amino acids by decarboxylative deamination (e.g., lysine, cysteine, histidine, tyrosine, and tryptophan) cause free radical mediated cross-linking of protein at thiol, histidinyl, and tyrosinyl groups and cause Schiff base formation (e.g., malondialdehyde and lysine aldehyde) (39,49,50,74-78). 

Asquith and Rivett (72) irradiated tryptophan in oxygenated aqueous solution with a medium pressure mercury lamp under neutral, acidic and basic conditions and identified several degradation products including formylkynurenine, kynurenine, aspartic acid, serine, glycine, alanine and (3-alanine. They suggest that the main degradative pathway of tryptophan is conversion to kynurenine via the indolenine hydroperoxide (see Section III. 1.1). The formation of amino acids could arise from further degradation of kynurenine as shown below. 

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