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Effect of cyanide antidotes on the metabolic conversion of cyanide to thiocyanate.

The excretion of thiocyanate following the administration of equitoxic doses of cyanide to unprotected mice and to animals pretreated with various cyanide antidotes has been studied. The results demonstrate that cyanide given alone or to animals pretreated with thiosulfate is extensively converted to thiocyanate. Animals pretreated with sodium nitrite or a combination of nitrite and sodium thiosulfate excreted even higher amounts of thiocyanate. This demonstrates that cyanide originally detoxified by combination with methemoglobin is ultimately converted to thiocyanate in the animal body. Pretreatment of animals with cobalt compounds (cobaltous chloride or dicobalt-EDTA) or a combination of cobalt compounds and thiosulfate resulted, on the other hand, in a less efficient conversion of cyanide to thiocyanate. The cyanide detoxified by trapping as highly undissociated cobalt-cyanide complexes is instead excreted in the urine, as demonstrated by detection of high amounts of cobalt ions and strongly complex-bound cyanide in the urine from animals treated with cobalt compounds and cyanide. A method for the determination of cyanide present as cobalt-cyanide complexes is described and its forensic application is proposed.

Animals

Properties of mitochondria isolated from cyanide-sensitive and cyanide-stimulated cultures of Acanthamoeba castellanii.

1. Mitochondria isolated from cultures of Acanthamoeba castellanii exhibit respiratory control and oxidize alpha-oxoglutarate, succinate and NADH with ADP:O ratios of about 2.4, 1.4 and 1.25 respectively. 2. Mitochondria from cultures of which the respiration was stimulated up to 50% by 1mm-cyanide (type-A mitochondria) and from cyanide-sensitive cultures (type-B mitochondria) had similar respiratory-control ratios and ADP:O ratios. 3. State-3 rates of respiration were generally more cyanide-sensitive than State-4 rates, and the respiration of type-A mitochondria was more cyanide-resistant than that of type-B mitochondria. 4. Salicylhydroxamic acid alone had little effect on respiratory activities of either type of mitochondria, but when added together with cyanide, irrespective of the order of addition, inhibition was almost complete. 5. Oxidation of externally added NADH by type-A mitochondria was mainly via an oxidase with a low affinity for oxygen (K(m)[unk]15mum), which was largely cyanide-sensitive and partially antimycin A-sensitive; this electron-transport pathway was inhibited by ADP. 6. Cyanide-insensitive but salicylhydroxamic acid-sensitive respiration was stimulated by AMP and ADP, and by ATP after incubation in the presence of MgCl(2). 7. Addition of rotenone to mitochondria oxidizing alpha-oxoglutarate lowered the ADP:O ratios by about one-third and rendered inhibition by cyanide more complete. 8. The results suggest that mitochondria of A. castellanii possess branched pathways of electron transport which terminate in three separate oxidases; the proportions of electron fluxes via these pathways vary at different stages of growth.

Adenine Nucleotides

Application of cyanide-metabolizing enzymes to environmental control; enzyme thermistor assay of cyanide using immobilized rhodanese and injectase.

The application of the enzyme thermistor in the analysis of cyanide in standard solutions as well as in blast furnace waste water is described. The heat signal is generated in the conversion of cyanide, catalyzed by the immobilized enzymes rhodanese (E.C. 2.8.1.1) and injectase (E.C. 4.4.19). Using the combination of cyanide-metabolizing enzymes and the enzyme thermistor unit, assays down to 20 microM cyanide can be carried out. Linear relationships were obtained at 20-600 microM cyanide for injectase and 20-1000 microM for rhodanese. The stability at 27 degrees C of the heat response was initially decreased, but soon stabilized at about 80% of the initial value and remained so for at least 200 hr. The technique was easily adapted to continuous analysis, applicable to environmental control (e.g., a "cyanide guard") with a response time at present within 2-3 min after a sudden change in cyanide concentration has appeared.

Carbon-Sulfur Lyases

Analytical isotachophoresis in capillary tubes. Analysis of hemoglobin, hemiglobin cyanide and isoelectric fractions of hemiglobin cyanide.

The zone stabilization in capillary isotachophoresis in the water phase has been improved by methylcellulose so that proteins can be analysed. Hemoglobin and hemiglobin cyanide samples were studied as model systems. Ampholine carrier ampholytes were used as spacers, enhancing the detection of the different components. The optimal amounts of Ampholine, however, were found to be much smaller than in most of the previously published reports. Linear relationships were found between the zone lengths and sample amounts, including spacers. The separations were reproducible and reached the isotachophoretic steady state. The hemiglobin cyanide was fractionated by isoelectric focusing. The four main fractions were then analyzed by capillary isotachophoresis and shown to be heterogeneous in mobility with a pH of 7.5 in the leading electrolyte. The component zones of the total hemiglobin cyanide sample were all identified in relation to the isotachophoretic components of the isoelectric fractions. The total analysis time was in average 30-40 min. The sample amounts were about 40 mug protein in each experiment with very small Ampholine volumes, 25-100 nl 40% (w/v).

Cellulose

Pharmacokinetics of cyanide in poisoning of dogs, and the effect of 4-dimethylaminophenol or thiosulfate.

Cyanide in blood, plasma, and urine of dogs after administration of K14CN was determined with the isotope dilution technique. The addition of large amounts of inactive KCN as soon as possible to a sample to be analyzed inhibited the decrease of the original cyanide concentration. After administration of several lethal doses of cyanide into the stomach or by slow intravenous infusion a concentration of about 40 micron cyanide in plasma was found at the moment of respiratory arrest. Since 60% of the cyanide in plasma was bound to proteins the concentration of free cyanide which stopped respiration was about 16 micron. Quick formation of ferrihemoglobin by i.v. injection of 4-dimethylaminophenol after plasma cyanide had risen to or above 40 micron decreased the cyanide concentration in plasma and restored respiration, while cyanide was accumulated in red cells by formation of ferrihemoglobin cyanide. Equilibrium constants calculated for the reaction between ferrihemoglobin and cyanide in vivo indicated that the reaction approached equilibrium in a few minutes. Up to 60% of the radioactive cyanide absorbed was found as non-cyanide radioactivity in the urine.

Animals

Inactivation of bovine liver 2-keto-4-hydroxyglutarate aldolase by cyanide in the presence of aldehydes.

Kinetic data show that the irreversible inactivation of liver 2-keto-4-hydroxyglutarate aldolase observed when the enzyme is incubated with an aldehydic substrate (or substrate analogue) in the presence of cyanide is a biphasic process and can, under certain conditions, involve a direct interaction between the enzyme and cyanide. The kinetic data are consistent with a scheme consisting of three competing reactions: (1) irreversible addition of cyanide to the enzyme-substrate Schiff base intermediate, (2) reversible cyanohydrin formation between cyanide and the aldehydic substrate (or substrate analogue), and (3) an interaction of cyanide with the enzyme which is not substrate dependent. Approximately 0.4 mol of cyanide is associated with 1 mol (120 000 g) of enzyme when 2-keto-4-hydroxyglutarate aldolase is incubated with [14-C]-cyanide followed by exhaustive dialysis; an ionic attachment possibly at a carboxylate binding site, is suggested. Whereas native enzyme, not treated with cyanide, has ten Nbs2-titratable sulfhydryl groups, approximately one less such group reacts with Nbs2 when the aldolase is incubated with cyanide (in the absence of aldehydic substrate). It is suggested that the binding of cyanide results in a conformational change of the enzyme; conformational changes in the presence of cyanide are confirmed by circular dichroism spectra.

Animals

The reactions of Pseudomonas cytochrome c-551 oxidase with potassium cyanide.

The binding of cyanide to both oxidized and ascorbate-reduced forms of Pseudomonas cytochrome c-551 oxidase was investigated. Spectral studies on the oxidized enzyme and its apoprotein showed that the ligand can bind to both the c and d, haem components of the molecule, and kinetic observations indicated that both chromophores reacted, under a variety of conditions, with very similar rates. Cyanide combination velocities were dependent on ligand concentration, and increasing the pH also accelerated the reaction; the second-order rate constant was estimated as approx. 0.2M-1 . s-1 at pH 7.0. The binding of cyanide to the protein was observed to have a considerable influence on reduction of the enzyme by ascorbate. Spectral and kinetic observations have revealed that the species haem d13+-cyanide and any unbound haem c may react relatively rapidly with the reductant, but the behaviour of cyanide-bound haem c indicates that it may not be reduced without prior dissociation of the ligand, which occurs relatively slowly. The reaction of reduced Pseudomonas cytochrome oxidase with cyanide is radically different from that of the oxidized protein. In this case the ligand only binds to the haem d1 component and reacts much more rapidly. Stopped-flow kinetic measurements showed the binding to be biphasic in form. Both the rates of these processes were dependent on cyanide concentration, with the fast phase having a second-order rate constant of 9.3 X 10(5) M-1 . s-1 and the slow phase one of 2.3 X 10(5) M-1 . s-1. The relative proportions of the two phases also showed a dependency on cyanide concentration, the slower phase increasing as the cyanide concentration decreased. Computer simulations indicate that a reaction scheme originally proposed for the reaction of the enzyme with CO is capable of providing a reasonable explanation of the experimental results. Static-titration data of the reduced enzyme with with cyanide indicated that the binding was non-stoicheiometric, the ligand-binding curve being sigmoidal in shape. A Hill plot of the results yielded a Hill coefficient of 2.6.

Apoproteins

Cyanide-resistant electron transport in sporulating Bacillus megaterium KM.

The NADH oxidase activity of stage V mother-cell membranes, isolated from sporulating Bacillus megaterium KM, shows a greater inhibition by cyanide and displays this response at lower concentrations of cyanide than the stage V forespore inner membrane. Comparison of the effects of various respiratory inhibitors reveals that the difference in cyanide sensitivity between these membranes is located on the oxidase side of the 2-heptyl-4-hydroxyquinoline N-oxide-sensitive step. Both membranes contain cytochromes a+a3, b-562, b-555, c and d, with three potential oxidases: cytochromes a+a3, o and d. Cyanide difference spectra suggest that cytochromes b-562 and d may be the components involved in the cyanide-resistant electron transport pathway. Membrane ascorbate-N,N,N',N'-tetramethylphenylenediamine and ascorbate 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol oxidase activities are highly sensitive to cyanide. Evidence is presented for terminal branching of the respiratory chain with branches differing in cyanide sensitivity. The cyanide sensitivity of the NADH oxidase of membranes prepared from various stages of sporulation is compared. Morphogenesis of the mother-cell plasma membrane to a cyanide-sensitive form during stages II and III of sporulation is postulated.

Bacillus megaterium