The reactivity of thiols and disulfides with different redox states of myoglobin. Redox and addition reactions and formation of thiyl radical intermediates.

The reactivity of several thiols, including glutathione, dihydrolipoic acid, cysteine, N-acetyl cysteine, and ergothioneine, as well as several disulfides, toward different redox states of myoglobin, mainly met-myoglobin (HX-FeIII) and ferrylmyoglobin (HX-FeIV=O), was evaluated by optical spectral analysis, product formation, and thiyl free radical generation. Only dihydrolipoic acid reduced met-myoglobin to oxy-myoglobin, whereas all the other thiols tested did not interact with met-myoglobin. Although the redox transitions involved in the former reduction were expected to yield the dihydrolipoate thiyl radical, the reaction was EPR silent. Conversely, all thiols interacted to different extent with the high oxidation state of myoglobin, i.e. ferrylmyoglobin, via two processes. First, direct electron transfer to heme iron in ferrylmyoglobin (HX-FeIV=O) with formation of met-myoglobin (HX-FeIII) or oxymyoglobin (HX-FeIIO2); the former transition was effected by all thiols except dihydrolipoate, which facilitated the latter, i.e. the formation of the two-electron reduction product of ferrylmyoglobin. Second, nucleophilic addition onto a pyrrole in ferrylmyoglobin with subsequent formation of sulfmyoglobin. The contribution of either direct electron transfer to the heme iron or nucleophilic addition depended on the physicochemical properties of the thiol involved and on the availability of H2O2 to reoxidize met-myoglobin to ferrylmyoglobin. The thiyl radicals of glutathione, cysteine, and N-acetylcysteine were formed during the interaction of the corresponding thiols with ferrylmyoglobin and detected by EPR in conjunction with the spin trap 5,5'-dimethyl-1-pyroline-N-oxide. The intensity of the EPR signal was insensitive to superoxide dismutase and it was decreased, but not suppressed, by catalase. The disulfides of glutathione and cysteine did not react with ferrylmyoglobin, but the disulfide bridge in lipoic acid interacted efficiently with the ferryl species by either reducing directly the heme iron to form met-myoglobin or adding onto a pyrrole ring to form sulfmyoglobin; either process depended on the presence or absence of catalase (to eliminate the excess of H2O2) in the reaction mixture, respectively. The biological significance of the above results is discussed in terms of the occurrence and distribution of high oxidation states of myoglobin, its specific participation in cellular injury, and its potential interaction with biologically important thiols leading to either recovery of myoglobin or generation of nonfunctional forms of the hemoprotein as sulfmyoglobin.