Free radical metabolism of methyleugenol and related compounds.

Methyleugenol, the methyl ether of eugenol, both of which are flavorant constituents of spices, has been listed by the National Toxicology Program's Report on Carcinogens as reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen. This finding is based on the observation of increased incidence of malignant tumors at multiple tissue sites in experimental animals of different species. By contrast, eugenol is not listed. In this study, we show that both methyleugenol and eugenol readily undergo peroxidative metabolism in vitro to form free radicals with large hyperfine interactions of the methylene allylic hydrogen atoms. These large hyperfine splittings indicate large electron densities adjacent to those hydrogen atoms. Methyleugenol undergoes autoxidation such that the commercial product contains 10-30 mg/L hydroperoxide and is capable of activating peroxidases without the presence of added hydrogen peroxide. Additionally, the hydroperoxide is not a good substrate for catalase, which demonstrates that these antioxidant defenses will not be effective in protecting against methyleugenol exposure.

L-tryptophan radical cation electron spin resonance studies: connecting solution-derived hyperfine coupling constants with protein spectral interpretations.

Fast-flow electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy has been used to detect a free radical formed from the reaction of l-tryptophan with Ce (4+) in an acidic aqueous environment. Computer simulations of the ESR spectra from l-tryptophan and several isotopically modified forms strongly support the conclusion that the l-tryptophan radical cation has been detected by ESR for the first time. The hyperfine coupling constants (HFCs) determined from the well-resolved isotropic ESR spectra support experimental and computational efforts to understand l-tryptophan's role in protein catalysis of oxidation-reduction processes. l-Tryptophan HFCs facilitated the simulation of fast-flow ESR spectra of free radicals from two related compounds, tryptamine and 3-methylindole. Analysis of these three compounds' beta-methylene hydrogen HFC data along with equivalent l-tyrosine data has led to a new computational method that can distinguish between these two amino acid free radicals in proteins without dependence on isotope labeling, electron-nuclear double resonance, or high-field ESR. This approach also produces geometric parameters (dihedral angles for the beta-methylene hydrogens) that should facilitate protein site assignment of observed l-tryptophan radicals as has been done for l-tyrosine radicals.

Fast-flow EPR spectroscopic observation of the isoniazid, iproniazid, and phenylhydrazine hydrazyl radicals.

Hydrazyl radical intermediates have been suggested as important intermediates in the biochemistry of hydrazides and hydrazines. Although spin-trapping studies have intercepted those species previously, there has been no report of the direct observation of the unstable hydrazyl radicals of isoniazid and iproniazid. We have employed the fast-flow technique in electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to measure spectra for the short-lived hydrazyl radicals of a family of hydrazides, including the pharmacologically important compounds isoniazid and iproniazid, as well as for a series of phenylhydrazines. Our investigations of the phenylhydrazine radical and the related chloro-substituted analogues have allowed definitive assignments of the hyperfine coupling constants of that toxicologically important free radical. Theoretical values of hyperfine coupling constants, calculated by density functional formalism, provided a guide to assignments for the hydrazyl species and confirmed the experimentally based assignments for phenylhydrazyl radical.