Primary sensitization to cinnamyl chloride in an operator of a pharmaceutical company

Contact Allergy-Emerging Allergens and Public Health Impact

Contact allergy (sensitisation) and allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) resulting from it have a considerable public health impact. For the present review, all pertinent articles were systematically searched via Medline and Web of Science™; additionally, all available issues of the journals "Contact Dermatitis" and "Dermatitis" were manually searched, covering the years 2018-2019, thereby extending and re-focusing a previous similar review. New allergens, or previously described allergens found in a new exposure context or of other current importance, are described in sections according to substance classes, e.g., metals, preservatives, fragrances. As a common finding in many investigations, a lack of information on product composition has been noted, for instance, regarding a newly described allergen in canvas shoes (dimethylthiocarbamylbenzothiazole sulfide) and, most notably, absence of co-operation from manufacturers of glucose-monitoring devices and insulin pumps, respectively. These latter devices have been shown to cause severe ACD in a considerable number of diabetic patients caused by the liberation of isobornyl acrylate and N,N'-dimethylacrylamide, respectively, as demonstrated by an international collaboration between dermatologists and chemists. Improved and complete ingredient labelling for all types of products, and not just cosmetics, must be put on the legislative agenda.

In Situ Metabolism of Cinnamyl Alcohol in Reconstructed Human Epidermis: New Insights into the Activation of This Fragrance Skin Sensitizer

Chemical modification of epidermal proteins by skin sensitizers is the molecular event which initiates the induction of contact allergy. However, not all chemical skin allergens react directly as haptens with epidermal proteins but need either a chemical (prehaptens) or metabolic (prohaptens) activation step to become reactive. Cinnamyl alcohol has been considered a model prohapten, as this skin sensitizer has no intrinsic reactivity. Therefore, the prevailing theory is that cinnamyl alcohol is enzymatically oxidized into the protein-reactive cinnamaldehyde, which is the sensitizing agent. Knowing that reconstructed human epidermis (RHE) models have been demonstrated to be quite similar to the normal human epidermis in terms of metabolic enzymes, use of RHE may be useful to investigate the in situ metabolism/activation of cinnamyl alcohol, particularly when coupled with high-resolution magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance. Incubation of carbon-13 substituted cinnamyl derivatives with RHE did not result in the formation of cinnamaldehyde. The metabolites formed suggest the formation of an epoxy-alcohol and an allylic sulfate as potential electrophiles. These data suggest that cinnamyl alcohol is inducing skin sensitization through a route independent of the one involving cinnamaldehyde and should therefore be considered as a skin sensitizer on its own.

On the Importance of the Aromatic Ring Parameter in Studies of the Solvolyses of Cinnamyl and Cinnamoyl Halides

In solvolysis studies using Grunwald-Winstein plots, dispersions were observed for substrates with aromatic rings at the α-carbon. Several examples for the unimolecular solvolysis of monoaryl benzylic derivatives and related diaryl- or naphthyl- substituted derivatives have now been reported, where the application of the aromatic ring parameter (I) removes this dispersion. A recent claim suggesting the presence of an appreciable nucleophilic component to the I scale, has now been shown, in a review of the solvolysis of highly-hindered alkyl halides, to be unlikely to be correct. Attention is now focused on the application of the hI term for the solvolysis of compounds containing a double bond in the vicinity of any developing carbocation. Available specific rates of solvolysis (plus some new values) at 25°C of cinnamyl chloride, cinnamyl bromide, cinnamoyl chloride, p-chlorocinnamoyl chloride, and p-nitrocinnamoyl chloride are analyzed using the simple and extended (including the hI term) Grunwald-Winstein equations.