Effect of Fluorination on Skin Sensitization Potential and Fragrant Properties of Cinnamyl Compounds

Bioactivation of cinnamic alcohol in a reconstructed human epidermis model and evaluation of sensitizing potency of the identified metabolites

Background

Cinnamic alcohol is a natural compound, widely used in fragrances, which can cause allergic contact dermatitis. Cinnamic alcohol lacks intrinsic reactivity and autoxidation or metabolic activation is necessary for it to act as a sensitizer.

Methods

Bioactivation of cinnamic alcohol was explored using human liver microsomes, human liver S9 and SkinEthic™ Reconstructed Human Epidermis. A targeted multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry method was employed to study and quantify cinnamic alcohol along with eight potential phase I or phase II metabolites. The reconstructed human epidermis model, treated with cinnamic alcohol, was also analyzed with a non-targeted high-resolution mass spectrometry method to identify metabolites not included in the targeted method.

Results

Two metabolites identified with the targeted method, namely, pOH-cinnamic alcohol and pOH-cinnamic aldehyde, have not previously been identified in a metabolic in vitro system. Their reactivity toward biologically relevant nucleophiles was investigated and compared to their sensitizing potency in vivo in the murine local lymph node assay (LLNA). According to the LLNA, the pOH-cinnamic alcohol is non-sensitizing and pOH-cinnamic aldehyde is a moderate sensitizer. This makes pOH-cinnamic aldehyde less sensitizing than cinnamic aldehyde, which has been found to be a strong sensitizer in the LLNA. This difference in sensitizing potency was supported by the reactivity experiments. Cinnamic sulfate, previously proposed as a potential reactive metabolite of cinnamic alcohol, was not detected in any of the incubations. In addition, experiments examining the reactivity of cinnamic sulfate toward a model peptide revealed no evidence of adduct formation. The only additional metabolite that could be identified with the non-targeted method was a dioxolan derivative. Whether or not this metabolite, or one of its precursors, could contribute to the sensitizing potency of cinnamic alcohol would need further investigation.

Discussion

Cinnamic alcohol is one of the most common fragrance allergens and as it is more effective to patch test with the actual sensitizer than with the prohapten itself, it is important to identify metabolites with sensitizing potency. Further, improved knowledge of metabolic transformations occurring in the skin can improve prediction models for safety assessment of skin products.

On the Unexpected Accuracy of the M06L Functional in the Calculation of 1JFC Spin-Spin Coupling Constants

One-bond spin-spin coupling constants (SSCCs) between F and C are computed with density functional theory (DFT). Surprisingly, M06L stands out for its striking accuracy, outperforming any other investigated functional, including PBE0, otherwise considered one of the most reliable for couplings involving F. Although the computation of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) parameters involving F is known to be a challenging task, even with a rather small basis set as pcJ-1, M06L provides results with a MAD = 11.7 Hz, whereas the average deviation gets as much as 5 times larger for PBE0 (MAD = 60.0 Hz). In the context of SSCCs on the order of 300 Hz, this is particularly remarkable. We find that the accuracy of M06L/pcJ-1 in predicting ¹J_FC constants does not stem from a well-suited exchange or correlation part of the functional. Instead, it is believed to arise from a fortuitous cancellation of errors, as revealed by investigating the convergence of the basis set. Our findings also indicate that ¹J_FC constants are highly dependent on the amount of exact exchange included in the expression of the functional, with large fractions being critically important to achieving satisfactory results. Studying the effects of the geometry on ¹J_FC, we find that optimizing the geometry at the level of theory used to calculate SSCCs generally improves the quality of the results, although the combination of a M06-2X/aug-cc-pVTZ geometry with M06L/pcJ-1 ¹J_FC constants best reproduces the experimental data for organofluorine compounds (with the exception of fluoroalkenes).