Narrow Results

Redox-active disulfides are capable of being oxidized and reduced under physiological conditions. The enzymatic role of redox-active disulfides in thiol-disulfide reductases is well-known, but redox-active disulfides are also present in non-enzymatic protein structures where they may act as switches of protein function. Here, we examine disulfides linking adjacent β-strands (cross-strand disulfides), which have been reported to be redox-active. Our previous work has established that these cross-strand disulfides have high torsional energies, a quantity likely to be related to the ease with which the disulfide is reduced. We examine the relationship between conformations of disulfides and their location in protein secondary structures. By identifying the overlap between cross-strand disulfides and various conformations, we wish to address whether the high torsional energy of a cross-strand disulfide is sufficient to confer redox activity or whether other factors, such as the presence of the cross-strand disulfide in a strained β-sheet, are required.

The synthesis of a new self-assembled porphyrin macrostructure based on disulfide bonds, is presented. This constitutes a new way to directly connect porphyrins in macromolecular arrays, to complement the usual methods of intermolecular hydrogen bonds and metal coordination bonding.

The tumor micro-environment is rich in glutathione. To exploit this feature for tumor-activatable porphyrin-based photosensitizers, a dimeric disulfide-bridged porphyrin has been designed and prepared, together with two reference derivatives, a non-cleavable dimer and a monomer. The three compounds have been investigated from a photochemical and photophysical point of view. It appears that the disulfide-bridged derivative exhibited intramolecular aggregation, but to an insufficient extent to induce a satisfying self-quenching of its photoproperties. Unlike expected, the non-cleavable dimer behaved like the monomeric derivative, due to the superior flexibility of the alkyl bridge over the disulfide bridge.

New routes to the formation of macrocyclic molecules are of high interest to the supramolecular chemistry community and the chemistry community at large. Here we describe the incorporation of heterocyclic core units into discrete macrocycles via the utilization of a pnictogen-assisted self-assembly technique. This method allows for the rapid and efficient formation of discreet macrocyclic units from simple dithiol precursors in high yields with good control over macrocycle size. Up to this point, this technique has been reported on primarily benzylic thiol systems with very little incorporation of endohedral heteroatoms in the resulting assemblies. This study demonstrates the effective incorporation of heterocyclic core molecules allowing for the formation of a more functional cavity, resulting in the formation and crystallization of novel furan- and thiophene-based disulfide dimer and trimer macrocycles, respectively, that are isolated from a range of other larger discrete macrocycles that assemble as well. These disulfide macrocycles can be trapped as their more kinetically stable thioether congeners upon sulfur extrusion.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• The Thioredoxin System

• The Glutaredoxin System

• Redox Regulation by Thioredoxin and Glutaredoxin

• Effects of Oxidants and Antioxidants

• Future Perspectives

• Acknowledgments

• References