The electro-oxidative activity of cysteine on the Au electrode as evidenced by surface enhanced Raman scattering

DFT study of the adsorption of D-(L-)cysteine on flat and chiral stepped gold surfaces

The adsorption of cysteine onto the intrinsically chiral gold surface, Au(321)(R,S), was investigated by means of a periodic supercell density functional theory approach. The results are compared to those obtained at the same level of theory with a nonchiral surface having the same terrace orientation, the Au(111) surface. Neutral and zwitterionic cysteine forms of the L and D enantiomers are considered, as are surface coverage effects. It was found that at high coverage the zwitterionic forms of L- and D-cysteine are more stable on the Au(321)(R,S) faces of the stepped surface and also on the flat Au(111) surface, leading to highly organized cysteine monolayers. However, at low coverage the adsorption of cysteine dimers, with the pairs interacting through their carbonyl groups, is more favorable than or at least equally favorable to the adsorption of single cysteine molecules on both surfaces. A comparison between the cysteine adsorption on the two different surface structures shows that the adsorption on the stepped surface is clearly more favorable than on the flat surface, revealing the importance of the low-coordinated gold atoms in the adsorption of these species. Furthermore, non-negligible differences between the adsorption energy of the enantiomers of cysteine were found both at high and low coverage, thus showing the enantiospecificity of this intrinsically chiral surface regarding cysteine adsorption. This adsorption occurs with the cysteine binding the surface through only one contact point (by its sulfur atom), in contrast to previous work where the enantiospecific adsorption of cysteine has been related to two nonequivalent binding sites of the cysteine enantiomers with the surface.

Experimental approach to controllably vary protein oxidation while minimizing electrode adsorption for boron-doped diamond electrochemical surface mapping applications

Oxidative protein surface mapping has become a powerful approach for measuring the solvent accessibility of folded protein structures. A variety of techniques exist for generating the key reagent (i.e., hydroxyl radicals) for these measurements; however, these approaches range significantly in their complexity and expense of operation. This research expands upon earlier work to enhance the controllability of boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrochemistry as an easily accessible tool for producing hydroxyl radicals in order to oxidize a range of intact proteins. Efforts to modulate the oxidation level while minimizing the adsorption of protein to the electrode involved the use of relatively high flow rates to reduce protein residence time inside the electrochemical flow chamber. Additionally, a different cell activation approach using variable voltage to supply a controlled current allowed us to precisely tune the extent of oxidation in a protein-dependent manner. In order to gain perspective on the level of protein adsorption onto the electrode surface, studies were conducted to monitor protein concentration during electrolysis and gauge changes in the electrode surface between cell activation events. This report demonstrates the successful use of BDD electrochemistry for greater precision in generating a target number of oxidation events upon intact proteins.

Lanthanide complexes on Ag nanoparticles: designing contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging

This paper describes colloidal particles that are designed to induce hyper-intensity contrast (T(1) relaxation) in MRI. The contrast agents consist of discrete gadolinium complexes tethered to 10 nm diameter silver nanoparticles. The gadolinium complexes (1) [Gd(DTPA-bisamido cysteine)](2-) and (2) [Gd(cystine-NTA)(2)](3-), undergo chemisorption to particle surfaces through thiol or disulfide groups, respectively, to form two new contrast agents. The resulting nanoparticulate constructs are characterized on the basis of their syntheses, composition, spectra and contrast enhancing power. The average r(1) relaxivities of the of the surface bound complexes (obtained at 9.4 T and 25 degrees C) are 10.7 and 9.7 s(-1) mM(-1), respectively, as compared to 4.7 s(-1) mM(-1) for the clinical agent Magnevist. Correspondingly, the respective whole particle relaxivities are 27927 and 13153 s(-1) mM(-1).

Side-chain oxidative damage to cysteine on a glassy carbon electrode

In this paper, oxidative damage to the cysteine (CySH) side-chain on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was investigated. Voltammetric studies show that there are three anodic peaks for the oxidation of CySH, which arise from (1) the oxidation of the -SH side-chain, forming cystine (0.71 V, vs. SCE) and (2) CySO( x )H, x = 2, 3 (0.98 V vs. SCE), and (3) the oxidation of the amino acid carboxyl group (around 1.51 V vs. SCE). The influence of dissolved oxygen, pH, scan rate, scan time, temperature and CySH concentration were investigated and the oxidative mechanism proposed. The peaks near 0.71 and 0.98 V are the promising candidates for measuring the oxidation of CySH on the GCE. This paper provides a new strategy for researching oxidative damage of amino acids, sulfur-containing peptides and proteins.