Comparison of the Effects of British Anti-Lewisite (BAL) and Beta Mercapto Ethanol on the Reduction and Cleavage of Disulfide Bonds in IgG and Human Keratinocyte Proteins

摘要

British anti lewisite (BAL) has been proposed as the active component for an ophthalmic antidote to lewisite. BAL was proposed because of data regarding its efficacy, and it has been cleared for therapeutic use in humans. Because it contains 2 thiol groups, BAL can be expected to reduce disulfide linkages and denature enzymes and other proteins. Thus two protein populations containing numerous inter-and intrachain disulfide bridges were exposed to BAL, and the effects were examined using polycrylamide gel electrophoresis. The first population was a purified preparation of IgG and the second consisted of human keratinocyte proteins. The effects of BAL on these proteins were compared to those of a widely used disulfide-reducing agent, beta mercapto ethanol. The results indicate that BAL is capable of reducing both inter and intrachain disulfide bridges in proteins, thus denaturing them and possibly causing a loss of function. British anti-lewisite and beta mercapto ethanol both caused alterations in the electrophoretic migration patterns of each protein population, but it was not possible to determine which compound was the more active with regard to denaturing human cellular proteins.