Using resonance synchronous spectroscopy to characterize the reactivity and electrophilicity of biologically relevant sulfane sulfur.

ABSTRACT: Sulfane sulfur is common inside cells, playing both regulatory and antioxidant roles. However, there are unresolved issues about its chemistry and biochemistry. We report the discovery that reactive sulfane sulfur such as polysulfides and persulfides could be detected by using resonance synchronous spectroscopy (RS₂). With RS₂, we showed that inorganic polysulfides at low concentrations were unstable with a half-life about 1 min under physiological conditions due to reacting with glutathione. The protonated form of glutathione persulfide (GSSH) was electrophilic and had RS₂ signal. GSS^- was nucleophilic, prone to oxidation, but had no RS₂ signal. Using this phenomenon, pK_a of GSSH was determined as 6.9. GSSH/GSS^-

SUBMITTER: Li H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6441731 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature