Glutathione reactivity with aliphatic polyisocyanates

PLoS One. 2022 Jul 15;17(7):e0271471. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271471. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Isocyanate chemicals known to cause adverse health effects when inhaled are essential to making important products and are used in multiple industries. Glutathione (GSH), a major antioxidant of the lower airways with a well described role in xenobiotic metabolism, is a primary reaction target for di-isocyantes. However, GSHs reactivity with poly-isocyanates which have largely replaced diisocyanates (particularly aliphatic) in most end-user settings remains uncertain. We hypothesized aliphatic polyisocyanates would readily react with glutathione under physiologic conditions and the products could be identified using liquid chromatography (LC) coupled-mass spectrometry (MS) and tandem MS/MS. The data identified (tris)GSH-isocyanate adducts as the major reaction product of GSH with the most commonly used contemporary polymeric (tri-isocyanate) formulations of hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI), the isocyanurate and biuret, as [M+H]+ ions of 1426.53 and 1400.55 m/z respectively in reverse phase LC-MS using electrospray in positive ion mode. The uretdione form of HDI, a stabilized dimer, formed two reaction products with GSH, a tris(GSH)-isocyanate reaction product recognized as a 1258.44 m/z [M+H]+ ion, and a bis(GSH)-isocyanate product identified as a 951.36 m/z [M+H]+ ion. Predicted structures for the newly described GSH-polyisocyanate reaction products, modeled based on collision induced dissociation (CID) fragmentation patterns in tandem MS/MS, support S-linkage of the GSH to N = C = O groups. In summary, industrially-used aliphatic polyisocyanates readily react with GSH to form primarily S-linked tris(GSH)-conjugates, a process that may play an important role in response to respiratory tract exposure.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography, Liquid
  • Glutathione / metabolism
  • Ions
  • Isocyanates / chemistry
  • Polyurethanes*
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry*

Substances

  • Ions
  • Isocyanates
  • Polyurethanes
  • Glutathione

Grants and funding

AW received a an award entitled "GSH reactivity with aliphatic polyisocyanates" from the American Chemistry Council. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.