Characterization of isothiocyanates, thioureas, and other lysine adduction products in carbon disulfide-treated peptides and protein

Carbon disulfide. Just toxic or also bioregulatory and/or therapeutic?

The overview presented here has the goal of examining whether carbon disulfide (CS₂) may play a role as an endogenously generated bioregulator and/or has therapeutic value.

A green and highly efficient sulfur functionalization of starch

An innovative green approach to achieve thiol functionalization of starch with a degree of substitution ≥ 2.

Effect of thiram on chick chondrocytes in culture

The effect of thiram, a fungicide that increases the incidence of tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) in poultry, was studied in vitro using growth plate chondrocyte culture. Thiram caused a significant reduction in alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities at concentrations of 5 microM and above. It was highly cytotoxic to chondrocytes at and above this concentration as determined by their ability to reduce 3(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (triazolyl blue, MTT), a marker of cellular viability. An increase in the leakage of LDH into culture media was evident at concentration as low as 1 microM. Very few differences were noticed in the electrophoretic migration profiles of cell-extract proteins at any treatment level relative to control. The cytotoxic effect of thiram is possibly due to its damaging effect on the cell membrane, which may be responsible for chondrocyte death.

Pathogenetic studies of hexane and carbon disulfide neurotoxicity

Two commonly employed solvents, n-hexane and carbon disulfide (CS2), although chemically dissimilar, result in identical neurofilament-filled swellings of the distal axon in both the central and peripheral nervous systems. Whereas CS2 is itself a neurotoxicant, hexane requires metabolism to the gamma-diketone, 2,5-hexanedione (HD). Both HD and CS2 react with protein amino functions to yield initial adducts (pyrrolyl or dithiocarbamate derivatives, respectively), which then undergo oxidation or decomposition to an electrophile (oxidized pyrrole ring or isothiocyanate), that then reacts with protein nucleophiles to result in protein cross-linking. It is postulated that progressive cross-linking of the stable neurofilament during its anterograde transport in the longest axons ultimately results in the accumulation of neurofilaments within axonal swellings. Reaction with additional targets appears to be responsible for the degeneration of the axon distal to the swellings.

Carbon disulfide inhalation increases Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase phosphorylation of cytoskeletal proteins in the rat central nervous system

The Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent phosphorylation of neuronal cytoskeletal proteins was studied in brain supernatants prepared from rats exposed via inhalation to 600 to 800 ppm carbon disulfide (CS2) for 14 days. Exposure to CS2 resulted in increased phosphorylation of endogenous MAP-2 and exogenously added neurofilament triplet proteins. There also was an observed increase in the autophosphorylation of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaM kinase II). Slight increases in the binding of a monoclonal antibody to the alpha subunit of CaM kinase II were seen, while large increases in the binding of [125I]calmodulin to the alpha subunit of CaM kinase II also were observed. The finding of large increases in the autophosphorylation and calmodulin-binding to CaM kinase II with only slight increases in the amount of antibody-binding suggests that CS2 exposure results in increased Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent phosphorylation of proteins by inducing an increase in kinase activity.