Forgot your password?
New user?
Document Actions
Picking out cysteine for health study
The indicator molecule reacts with the sulfhydryl and amino parts of the cysteine molecule to form a pink compound that's fluorescent under UV light. No such reaction is seen with other biothiols
A highly selective indicator for the amino acid cysteine has been designed by scientists from the US and China to monitor levels in human plasma. Elevated cysteine levels have been linked with motor neurone disease, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.
Cysteine is an essential amino acid and plays an important role in cell functions. Its structure contains both a sulfhydryl (-SH) and an amino group (-NH2), both of which are reactive. Previous detectors have focused on reactions with the sulfhydryl group, but it has been tricky to detect cysteine over other SH-containing biomolecules in the blood, such as glutathione and the closely related homocysteine. More...
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2012/March/highly-selective-cysteine-detector.asp
Researchers discover new materials to capture methane