Ovothiol and ergothioneine are powerful antioxidants
that readily
react with oxidants by forming their respective disulfides. In fact,
ovothiol is widely considered one of the most powerful natural antioxidants.
However, for these antioxidants to be again involved in reacting with
oxidants, they must be regenerated via the reduction of the disulfide
bonds. In the present work, the regeneration of the antioxidants ovothiol
and ergothioneine and their selenium analogues, by the closed-shell
nucleophilic attack of glutathione, was investigated using density
functional theory. From the calculated thermodynamic data, the attack
of glutathione on OSSO and EYYE (where Y = S and/or Se) will readily
occur in solution. Moreover, in comparison to the reference reaction
GSH + GSSG → GSSG + GSH, all reactions are expected to be faster.
Overall, the results presented herein show that the key antioxidant
GSH should readily recycle ovothiol, ovoselenol, ergothioneine, and
ergoseloneine from OYYO and EYYE (where Y = S and/or Se).
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