Hypochlorite is known to oxidatively degrade the corrin ring of cobalamin. Here, transient reaction intermediates are described in the reaction of aqua as well as of cyano-cobalamin with hypochlorite, using stopped-flow UV-vis kinetics. For aqua-cobalamin, the intermediate is assigned as arising from substitution of the aqua ligand with hypochlorite. For cyano-cobalamin, the intermediate is proposed to arise from substitution of the benzimidazole ligand trans to the cyanide. In both cases, the intermediates would feature a new Co(III)-OCl-bond-which is also supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations.
Keywords: Cobalt; DFT; Hypochlorous acid; Stopped-flow; UV–vis; Vitamin B12.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society for Biological Inorganic Chemistry (SBIC).