Patent Abstract:
the invention relates to antioxidants or radical scavengers and their reaction products . the invention provides compounds and compositions for use in methods for scavenging radicals or for modulating the immune response comprising urocanic acid or salts , derivatives , functional equivalents and analogues thereof .

Detailed Description:
trans - uca , cis - uca , related imidazoles and non - imidazole compounds were tested with regard to their ability to compete with deoxyribose to scavenge hydroxyl radicals . on exposure to hydroxyl radicals deoxyribose is degraded into malondialdehyde , which reacts with thiobarbituric acid to form a pink chromogen . powerful hydroxyl - radical scavengers will compete with deoxyribose , resulting in a reduced amount of malondialdehyde [ 22 ]. ten compounds , uca , uca analogues , alanine and uric acid ( fig1 ) were tested on their ability to scavenge hydroxyl radicals . method : the deoxyribose ( dr ) degradation test . the test was analogous to an earlier described method [ 22 ]. briefly , the reactions were performed in 5 ml screw cap glass tubes in a final volume of 1 . 0 ml sodium phosphate buffer ( 50 mm ; ph 7 . 2 ), containing 3 . 0 mm 2 deoxy - d - ribose , 0 . 5 mm hydrogen peroxide and one of the test compounds at graded concentrations . the reaction was started by the addition of premixed disodium edta and ferrous iron solution ( final concentrations 0 . 5 mm and 0 . 2 mm , respectively ). the mixture was left for 15 minutes at room temperature . after addition of 1 . 0 ml 1 % thiobarbituric acid in 50 mm naoh and 0 . 75 ml 2 . 8 % trichloroacetic acid , the tubes were heated for 20 minutes in a boiling water bath . the pink color was read at 532 nm and reciprocal absorption values were plotted against the concentration of the test compound after subtraction of appropriate blanks . a series of six duplicate determinations from test compound dilutions was employed to construct a graph slope for the calculation of a rate constant value . the mean , sd , number of rate constants and the percentage of inhibition of deoxyribose degradation , calculated for each test compound , are listed . results . all second - order rate constants for reaction with hydroxyl radicals and , in addition , the percentage inhibition of deoxyribose degradation with equimolar concentrations ( 3 mm ) of scavenger are summarized in table 1 . a typical graph with slopes to derive rate constants from is shown in fig2 for both uca isomers . trans - uca and cis - uca are substantially more powerful in scavenging hydroxyl radicals ( 8 . 0 and 7 . 1 × 10 9 m − 1 · s − 1 , respectively ), than the other 4 -( 5 -)- substituted imidazoles , including l - histidine ( 2 . 6 × 10 9 m − 1 · s − 1 ). l - histidine , the precursor of uca , was included as a known moderate scavenger [ 22 - 24 ] with structural similarities to uca . l - alanine was used as a known poor scavenger [ 22 ]. trans - faa was tested as a non - imidazole acrylic acid derivative , having a furan ring instead . this substitution yielded a very poor scavenging ability . other 4 -( 5 -) substituted imidazole analogues , dihydrourocanic acid or 3 -( imidazol - 4 - yl )- propionic acid and imidazole - 4 - acetic acid , showed moderate scavenging ability , comparable to histidine . unsubstituted imidazole and its 2 - methyl derivative appeared to be stronger scavengers than the uca isomers . the well - known hydroxyl radical scavenger uric acid showed an excellent abilitiy ( 27 . 8 × 10 9 m − 1 · s − 1 ) trans - uca and cis - uca , two epidermal compounds , are good hydroxyl radical scavengers ; their ability is less than that of uric acid , but larger than that of the other 4 -( 5 -) substituted imidazoles , e . g . histidine . trans - uca and cis - uca are herein recognized as good hydroxyl radical scavengers . both isomers occur in substantial concentrations in the epidermis , the latter in the uv - exposed skin . there is strong evidence for the occurrence of hydroxyl radicals in the epidermis , especially upon uv irradiation [ 7 ]. normal human skin contains approximately 200 μm iron [ 26 , 27 ], predominantly complexed to ferritin . the release of free ferrous ions by uv irradiation [ 28 ] and the presence of hydrogen peroxide [ 29 , 30 ] are prerequisites for the generation of hydroxyl radicals . other reports indicate the uv - induced presence of hydroxyl radicals indirectly since their effects on epidermal constituents could be neutralized with antioxidants [ 31 , 32 ]. uca is an imidazole compound and several other imidazole derivatives have already been shown to be good hydroxyl radical scavengers , e . g . histidine [ 22 - 24 ], histamine [ 33 ], histidine containing dipeptides [ 24 , 34 ], cimetidine and other histamine ( h 2 ) receptor antagonists [ 35 ]. this study reveals that several other imidazoles show similar properties ( table 1 ). hydroxyl radicals can react with the imidazole ring to form imidazolone derivatives . their formation has led to the proposal to use the imidazolones of histidine and histamine as markers for oxidative stress [ 23 , 33 ]. the importance of the imidazole ring in uca molecules was also demonstrated in our experiments . the poor scavenging ability of trans - faa , having a furan ring instead , was a remarkable contrast . furthermore , the presence of the acrylic acid moiety in uca molecules conjugated with the imidazole ring may account for its increased scavenging ability towards hydroxyl radicals as compared to the other 4 -( 5 -) substituted imidazoles . unsubstituted imidazole and its 2 - methyl derivative are stronger hydroxyl radical scavengers , accentuating that the presence of an imidazole ring is a prerequisite for sufficient hydroxyl radical scavenging ability . however , these compounds do not occur physiologically and are harmful ( ld 50 oral rat 220 mg / kg for imidazole and 1500 mg / kg for 2 - methylimidazole ). trans - uca and cis - uca do occur physiologically , mainly in the epidermis , with relatively high concentrations . our findings point to a new physiological role for the uca isomers , besides the suggested roles of trans - uca as natural sunscreen agent and cis - uca as immunosuppressant . trans - uca and cis - uca may be major epidermal hydroxyl radical scavengers , providing a new view on the antioxidant status of the skin . the findings that 1 . uca isomers are good hydroxyl radical scavengers , though not as strong as uric acid , and that 2 . the uca isomers already occupy relatively high concentrations in the skin , create possibilities to apply the uca isomers as non - toxic antioxidant additives in food and cosmetics in relatively high concentrations . trans - uca ( commercially available ) should be preferred , because cis - uca may exert immunosuppressive effects . in contrast to the photoisomerization of uca , not much attention has as yet been given to the oxidation of uca . in particular , the reaction of uca isomers with the very reactive hydroxyl radicals should be explored . hydroxyl radicals can be generated from hydrogen peroxide upon uv irradiation , and from hydrogen peroxide in contact with reduced metal ions , e . g . ferrous ( fe 2 + ) ions . uv - a irradiation of trans - uca or cis - uca with hydrogen peroxide only results in uca photoisomerization and not in uca photooxidation . the lack of correlation between uv - a - induced cis - uca formation and immunosuppression ( 18 ) may be another indication for a role of uca - oxidation products in skin immunology . these compounds can either be formed in the presence of hydrogen peroxide upon uv - b irradiation or by a fenton reaction ; both reaction types leading to comparable sets of oxidation products as determined by chromatographic patterns . the common oxidizing species of both reaction types is most likely the hydroxyl radical . starting the oxidation with trans - uca or with cis - uca yielded similar chromatographic patterns . in relation with hydroxyl radical scavenging of the uca isomers , it should be noted that uca isomers may as well interfere with uv - induced immunosuppression through scavenging of radical species . the presence of the acrylic acid moiety in uca molecules conjugated with the imidazole ring may account for its increased scavenging ability towards hydroxyl radicals as compared to non - conjugated imidazoles , such as histidine and histamine . it may also account for the diversity of the formed oxidation products . trans - uca and cis - uca were separated from each other and from several uca oxidation products on a 4 . 6 × 250 mm alltima c 18 and a luna c 18 reversed - phase column ( alltech , deerfield , il and phenomenex , torrence , calif ., resp .) with a flow of 0 . 8 ml / min , delivered by p - 3500 hplc - pumps ( pharmacia , uppsala , sweden ). samples of 20 to 200 μl were injected by a promis ii autosampler ( spark holland , emmen , the netherlands ) and chromatographic data were recorded on an sp 4270 integrator ( spectra physics , san jose , calif .). peak area data from samples were only processed under identical hplc circumstances . a uv - detector ( applied biosystems , model 759a , foster city , ca ) was set for 226 nm detection . isocratic elution was performed with 10 mm ammonium formate buffer , containing 0 . 2 - 0 . 8 mm tetrabutylammonium ( tba ) formate and 1 % acetonitrile ( ph 7 . 2 ). collected fractions were acidified with formic acid up to a final concentration of 100 mm and passed through c 18 solid phase extraction columns ( jt baker , deventer , the netherlands ) in order to remove tba . a 1 - cm quartz cuvette , filled with 1 . 4 ml sample , was placed in the parallel beam of a filtered 1000 w xenon arc lamp ( oriel , stratford , conn .). the samples were magnetically stirred during irradiation . to minimize infrared ( heat ) and visible radiation , the beam was passed through a water filter ( 7 cm ), reflected by a dichroic mirror and filtered through a 1 - mm ug11 filter . short - wave cut off was achieved by passing the beam through wg280 , wg305 or wg335 filters with 3 mm thickness each ( schott - jena , mainz , germany ) . xenon lamp emission filtered through wg280 included uv - c , uv - b and uv - a ; through wg305 uv - b and uv - a and through wg335 only uv - a was included . two narrow bands in the uv - b and uv - a spectral regions were selected to monitor the xenon - arc emission . the probe of a calibrated eg & amp ; g 550 radiometer ( salem , mass ., usa ) was equipped with a neutral density filter and narrow band filter type uv - m - il ( schott - jena ) with a transmission maximum of 21 % at 303 nm and a half - width of 11 . 5 nm to monitor uv - b or with a type uv - pil ( schott - jena ) with a transmission maximum of 46 % at 363 nm and a half - width of 7 . 7 nm to monitor uv - a . transmission spectra of the optical filters were checked on a perkin elmer lambda 40 uv / vis spectrometer ( norwalk , conn ., usa ). additional irradiations were performed with fluorescent tubes tl12 , used as a uv - b source , and tl10r , used as a uv - a source ( philips , eindhoven , the netherlands ), on samples that were magnetically stirred in small petri dishes . the uv - b output was measured with an il 443 phototherapy radiometer , fitted with a see 1240 silicon detector probe and the uv - a output with an il 442a phototherapy radiometer with a see 115 detector probe ( international light , newburyport , mass ., usa ). uca isomers ( 10 or 40 μm ) were oxidized with a hydroxyl - radical - generating system that consisted of various concentrations of ferrous ions ( 10 - 500 μm ) and a fixed hydrogen peroxide concentration of 500 μm ( the fenton reagent ), either in a sodium phosphate ( 10 or 20 mm ) medium of ph 7 . 2 , or in ultrapure water . in addition , two hydroxyl - radical - generating systems with copper ions ( cu 2 + ) were used , consisting of 50 μm cu 2 + with either 500 μm hydrogen peroxide or 5 mm ascorbic acid . 4 -( hydroxymethyl ) imidazole - hcl ( 4 mmol ) was stirred together with sodium bicarbonate ( 6 mmol ) in 4 ml methanol for 1 hour at room temperature . the methanol was evaporated and the residue was extracted with a chloroform / methanol 1 : 1 . after centrifugation at 3500 rpm for 5 minutes the supernatant was evaporated and the residue was taken up in 20 ml hot dioxane . 4 . 4 g manganese dioxide ( activated ; for synthesis ) was added , followed by a reflux reaction for 2 hours . manganese dioxide was removed by filtration and the filtrate was evaporated . crystallization was carried out in methanol . the yield was 95 mg of fine off - white crystals , 25 % of maximum yield . the melting range was 168 - 169 ° c . : 173 - 175 ° c .) . melting range of starting material was 108 - 111 ° c . and of the oxidation product imidazole - 4 - carboxylic acid 294 - 295 ° c . uv ( water ) λ max ( log ε ) 257 nm ( 3 . 85 ). the o — o bond of hydrogen peroxide can be cleaved by uv radiation to yield hydroxyl radicals . because both uca isomers could effectively scavenge hydroxyl radicals , it is to be expected that uca will be degraded and / or converted into oxidation products . the ability of simulated solar uv radiation to convert trans - uca in the presence of hydrogen peroxide into photooxidation products was tested in vitro and analyzed by reversed - phase hplc analysis . hydrogen peroxide eluted close to void volume and trans - uca and cis - uca eluted with markedly different elution times of 20 and 64 min ( fig3 a - d ). the unirradiated control sample did not show any interaction between trans - uca and hydrogen peroxide ( fig3 a ). exposing 80 μm trans - uca in the absence of hydrogen peroxide at ph 7 . 2 to wg280 - filtered xenon - arc emission ( including uv - c and uv - b ) resulted only in the formation of cis - uca via the process of photoisomerization ( fig3 b ). however , when trans - uca was irradiated in the presence of 500 μm hydrogen peroxide under identical conditions , many additional peaks appeared in the chromatograms and both trans - uca and cis - uca peaks were strongly reduced ( fig3 c ), indicating a certain photochemical conversion or breakdown . eight main photooxidation products were recognized as new peaks based on retention times and were assigned in the chromatogram ( fig3 c ). in contrast , when exposures were performed with simulated solar radiation from which both uv - c and uv - b were blocked out by a wg335 filter , virtually no photo - oxidation products were found ( fig3 d ). only uca photoisomerization was apparent , which is in accordance with earlier reports ( 2 , 3 ). the ratio of trans - uca to cis - uca photoisomerization was not affected by the degree of photooxidative breakdown . blocking out uv - c by the use of the wg305 filter showed intermediate results ( table 2 ). this irradiation condition has the closest simulation with the spectral uv distribution of terrestrial solar radiation produced by an overhead sun on a bright day . tests with the fluorescent lamps tl 12 ( uv - b and uv - a ; some uv - c ) and tl10r ( uv - a ) confirmed the above findings that uv - b and uv - c have photo - oxidative ability . although the uv - a dose of the fluorescent lamp was much higher than that of uv - b , the yield of uca photo - oxidation products was much lower with uv - a ( table 2 ). the formation of photo - oxidation products was quantified by summing the eight major peak areas ( in arbitrary units ; peaks a - h ). the degree of photo - oxidative breakdown , the yield of photooxidation products and the degree of uca photoisomerization under different irradiation conditions were summarized in table 2 . taking the various emissions of these uv sources into account , the photo - oxidative ability of uv radiation became substantial with wavelengths shorter than approximately 320 nm . experiments with cis - uca yielded similar results , except that cis - uca / trans - uca ratios were increased in this series ( data not shown ). uca isomers and fenton oxidation in the next series of experiments we studied the fenton oxidation of uca , representing another natural oxidation process . trans - uca and cis - uca isomers were fenton oxidized by ferrous ions ( fe 2 + ) and hydrogen peroxide at physiological concentrations . the initial hydrogen peroxide concentration was 500 μm and the ferrous ion concentration was varied from 0 to 500 μm . in all fenton - oxidation reactions the degree of uca - isomer breakdown was calculated from their reduced peak areas . the oxidation reaction must have been completed within 2 minutes for all reaction conditions , because no further breakdown was observed after prolonged incubation . hydrogen peroxide without fe 2 + had no effect on the uca isomers at all ; however , fe 2 + without hydrogen peroxide resulted in a slow breakdown of uca isomers after prolonged incubation ( data not shown ). the sequence order of addition of the two fenton reagents did not markedly affect the uca breakdown and yield of oxidation products , except at a low uca concentration of 10 μm . when fe 2 + was added after hydrogen peroxide , a larger breakdown and a smaller yield of fenton - oxidation products were observed , whereas the reversed - sequence order gave opposite results ( data not shown ). when the fenton reaction was performed in water instead of phosphate buffer , the oxidative breakdown of trans - uca was enhanced irrespective of the uca concentration . the turbidity seen in reactions performed in phoshate buffer ( 10 mm ) with high fe 2 + concentration (& gt ; 100 μm ) was probably due to the formation of insoluble iron phosphate , thereby reducing the free availability of fe 2 + . table 3 summarizes the difference between water and phosphate medium for trans - uca at an initial concentration of 40 μm with respect to its breakdown and the formation of fenton - oxidation products . similarly to the photo - oxidation experiments , the peak areas of the 8 major oxidation products were summed . comparable results were obtained with cis - uca ( data not shown ), which finding is in accordance with the comparable rate constants of trans - uca and cis - uca in the deoxyribose degradation experiment ( table 1 ). a close resemblance was observed between the chromatographic patterns of uca fenton oxidation products ( not shown ) and those of uca photo - oxidation products . three of them has been identified ( vide infra ). when two other hydroxyl - radical - generating systems based on copper ions ( cu 2 + ) were investigated with trans - uca , the combination of cu 2 + ( 50 μm ) and ascorbic acid ( 5 mm ) without hydrogen peroxide caused an almost complete breakdown of trans - uca ( 3 % left ), whereas the system with cu 2 + ( 50 μm ) and hydrogen peroxide ( 500 μm ) showed little effect ( 88 % trans - uca left ). evaluation of the data was difficult with the ascorbate system , because several interfering peaks had occurred in the chromatograms , which were probably derived from ascorbic acid and its oxidation products . both sytems are considered to be of minor importance for the situation in vivo , but these results indicate similarities in oxidative behaviour of the uca isomers , independent of the nature of the hydroxyl - radical - generating system . in another series of experiments we studied the fenton oxidation of uca , representing another natural oxidation process . the initial hydrogen peroxide concentration was 500 μm in all experiments and the ferrous ion concentration was varied from 0 to 400 μm . four sets of conditions were compared : 1 . fe 2 + in phosphate buffer ph 7 . 2 , 2 . fe 2 + in phosphate buffer plus edta , 3 . fe 2 + without buffer with a initial ph of 5 . 5 - 5 . 3 and 4 . cu 2 + in phosphate buffer plus ascorbate . the degree of breakdown was similar for both uca isomers . table 3 shows oxidative breakdown of trans - uca with hydrogen peroxide in increasing order : condition 1 & lt ; 2 & lt ; 4 & lt ; 3 . the addition of fe 2 + at final concentrations of 100 - 400 μm in phosphate buffer caused a turbid solution of insoluble iron phosphate . under this condition the smallest degree of breakdown was established . a limited availability of free fe 2 + is assumed to reduce the oxidative breakdown of uca . at the other hand , complexation of fe 2 + to edta did not cause a turbid reaction mixture and a larger breakdown was established ( table 3 ). the largest breakdown was seen in the absence of phosphate buffer , with a less defined ph value of 5 . 5 to 5 . 3 , dependent on the uca concentration ( 40 , 100 or 250 μm ). at the start of the fenton reaction in the unbuffered medium , there was a rapid fall of the ph value from 5 . 1 to 3 . 4 , with initial concentrations of trans - uca , hydrogen peroxide and ferrous ions of 250 , 500 and 400 μm , respectively . we attribute this effect to the unbuffered liberation of relatively strong acids , such as glyoxylic acid ( glx ). similar results of breakdown , though slightly less pronounced , were obtained with cis - uca ( table 4 ). this finding is in accordance with the comparable second order rate constants of trans - uca and cis - uca for hydroxyl radical scavenging ( 8 ). hydrogen peroxide without fe 2 + had no effect on the uca isomers at all ; however , fe 2 + without hydrogen peroxide resulted in a partial breakdown of the uca isomers upon prolonged incubation of one day ( data not shown ). the primary oxidation products formed are imcho and glx . additional experiments in which imcho was used as starting material , a yield of virtually 100 % imcooh was obtained after fenton - or photooxidation . in uca samples that were highly oxidized ( containing & lt ; 4 % uca ) imcooh was the major 226 nm absorbing compound , while imcho concentration was largely reduced . an additional experiment demonstrated that under this oxidative condition the aldehyde ( imcho ) was oxidized to the carboxylic acid ( imcooh ). glx was analyzed in lower amounts than imcho in all cases studied ( table 3 ), except for the fenton oxidation of 40 μm uca ( table 4 , section 3 . 1 and 3 . 4 ). trans - uca and cis - uca in relatively high concentration of 250 μm were broken down for 78 % and 75 %, respectively , by the unbuffered . fenton oxidation system . table 4 section 3 also shows that the yield of oxidation products was proportional with the initial uca concentration . remarkably , the yield of imcho from cis - uca was substantially larger than from trans - uca . in the phosphate buffered fenton system a comparable breakdown and a comparable yield of oxidation products was recorded , irrespective of the initial uca concentration range from 40 to 250 μm ( table 4 , section 1 , only results of 40 μm are shown ). in the presence of edta , a larger breakdown and a higher yield of oxidation products ( in particular imcho ) resulted ( table 4 , section 2 ). this yield was raised as higher initial uca concentrations were used . in the unbufffered system , the highest degree of breakdown of all tested systems was recorded . the oxidation product yield was the largest of all systems when the initial uca concentration was high ( 250 μm )( table 4 , section 3 ). when another hydroxyl - radical - generating system , based on copper ions ( cu 2 + ) was investigated , the combination of cu 2 + / ascorbic acid / hydrogen peroxide caused a large breakdown of trans - uca ( table 3 ) and a moderate yield of uca oxidation products , in favor of imcooh . without ascorbic acid , the system with cu 2 + ( 50 μm ) and hydrogen peroxide ( 500 μm ) showed little breakdown ( 88 % trans - uca left ; data not shown ). for the situation in vivo , one must remember that the epidermal copper content is lower than iron ( 29 ). a close resemblance was observed between the chromatographic patterns of uca fenton oxidation products and those of uca photooxidation products ( fig5 ). also under photooxidation an oxidation inhibiting effect was seen in phosphate of ph 7 . 2 , whereas the yield of oxidation products was in favor of imcho ( table 4 , section 4 versus 5 ). in photo - oxidation , the breakdown of cis - uca was substantially decreased in comparison with the trans isomer ( table 4 , section 4 - 6 ). in fenton oxidation , this effect was less pronounced . the data of table 4 were given for air saturated solutions . argon - purging of the solutions , prior to fenton — or photooxidation , enhanced uca breakdown as well as the yield of oxidation products , both by a factor 2 to 3 . heating ( to 37 ° c .) of argon - purged solutions slightly enhanced the yield of imcho . the data of table 4 indicate a discrepancy (‘ gap ’) between micromoles of uca isomer broken down and micromoles of oxidation products formed . the smallest ‘ gap ’, though still 52 %, was found after the oxidation of cis - uca in the unbuffered system ( section 3 ). thin layer chromatography ( tlc ) gave more insight in the ‘ gap ’ products , that were not seen in reversed phase chromatography , using uv detection or fluorescence detection . tlc carried out on silica with the eluent isopropanol / ammonia 25 % ( 4 : 1 ) showed an array of elutable , partly overlapping fluorescent spots and a fluorescent spot at the start position ( data not shown ). however , the initial weight of trans - uca , introduced in a photooxidation experiment with extensive uca breakdown (& lt ; 4 % of each uca isomer left over ), was not lowered much ( ˜ 14 %) after severe photooxidation . this finding indicated a predominant formation of non - volatile , solid material in stead of gaseous compounds , such as co 2 and water . the tlc pattern and the weighing experiment points to a possible hydroxyl radical initiated chain reaction of uca , resulting in the formation of substances that may fill the above mentioned gap . these substances may not be fully detected under the chromatographic conditions used for the simultaneous determination of the uca isomers , imcho and imcooh . the inhibitory effects of the uca oxidation products are illustrated in fig5 . maximum ear swelling response was normalized to 100 %. the largest reduction was obtained with the residue of severely photooxidized uca ( po mix iii ) , containing less than 4 % residual cis - uca . it resulted in only 19 % ear swelling ( 81 % reduction of swelling ). even a tenfold dilution of that mix ( 0 . 2 g / l ) reduced the ear swelling markedly ( 29 % ear swelling ), which is of similar level as the effect of cis - uca in a concentration of 1 g / l ( 31 % ear swelling ). another remarkable effect was obtained by mixing the three identified imidazoles . when we tested one of the imidazoles alone ( 1 g / l ), only a moderate effect was seen , however , when tested mixed together ( 1 g / l , each imidazole 0 . 33 g / l ), a synergistic effect was observed ( 26 % ear swelling ). glyoxylic acid and oxalic acid , as ammonium salts , did not exhibit significant inhibition of chs . concentrations of trans - uca and hydrogen peroxide were largely increased , as was the uv exposure , to obtain larger amounts of uca photo - oxidation products as collected fractions from the reversed phase column for further analysis . a typical chromatogram is shown in fig4 . four fractions , designated as r t 8 , r t 10 , r t 14 , r t 17 , were finally selected for identification ( peak a , 1 - 3 in fig4 ). prior to analysis , tetrabutylammonium was removed by solid phase extraction on c 18 silica . r t 8 was identified as imidazole - 4 - carboxaldehyde ( imcho ). its uv - spectrum was identical to the synthesized ( see below ) reference compound with an absorption maximum of 257 nm . co - injection of r t 8 with synthesized imidazole - 4 - carboxaldehyde resulted in a single chromatographic peak with a retention time of 8 . 13 minutes . further evidence is to be collected ( peak a in fig4 ). the amount of imcho in the photooxidized uca sample was gradually reduced upon storage at − 20 ° c . r t 10 was identified as imidazole - 4 - acetic acid . its uv - spectrum was identical with an absorption maximum of 213 nm . mass spectrum was obtained with electrospray technique and the dry sample was treated with methanol / hcl and n - butanol / hcl before analysis . a peak at mass 140 was obtained after methylation and at mass 183 after butylation . consequently , the mass of the original compound was 126 . co - injection of r t 10 with commercially available imidazole - 4 - acetic acid resulted in a single chromatographic peak with a retention time of 8 . 98 minutes ( peak 1 in fig4 ). r t 14 was identified as imidazole - 4 - carboxylic acid ( imcooh ). its uv - spectrum was identical to the commercially obtained reference compound with an absorption maximum of 226 nm . proton resonance ( 1h - nmr ) analysis was done in d 2 o , showing imidazolic protons in a ratio 1 : 1 with shifts of 7 . 76 and 7 . 53 ppm . mass spectrum was obtained with electrospray technique and the dry sample was treated with methanol / hcl and n - butanol / hcl before analysis . a peak at mass 126 was obtained after methylation and at mass 169 after butylation . consequently , the mass of the original compound was 112 . co - injection of r t 14 with commercially available imcooh resulted in a single chromatographic peak with a retention time of 14 . 73 minutes ( peak 2 in fig4 ). the amount of imcooh in the photooxidized uca sample was gradually increased upon storage at − 20 ° c . 538 mg starting material ( 4 mmol ) was dissolved in ˜ 4 ml methanol and 500 mg nahco 3 ( 6 mmol ) was added . the tube was occasionally stirred for 60 min , alternatively at 4 ° c . and at warm water temperature . co 2 was allowed to escape from the glass tube . the mix was divided across several eppendorf tubes and subjected to speedvac treatment for 1 hour . residues were white solids with light - yellow sirupy liquids . chloroform / methanol mix 1 : 1 was added to the tubes with subsequent gentle warming and stirring . nahco 3 was separated by centrifugation of the combined fractions at 3500 rpm for 5 min . clear supernatant was kept overnight at − 20 ° c . to allow the precipitation of additional nahco 3 . then , the solution was cleared by filtration and evaporated to dryness with a rotavapor device . the residue was taken up in 20 ml dioxane with magnetic stirring and 4 . 4 mg mno 2 ( activated ; for synthesis ) was added in the same flask . the residue may not have been dissolved completely in first instantion . the mix was refluxed for 2 hours on a paraffin oil bath . the warm solution was filtered and mno 2 was washed once with warm dioxane . dioxane was evaporated with the rotavapors yielding a white and yellow fine cristalline solid . crystallization was carried out in methanol repeated times . small volumes of methanol were required , because the residue dissolved well in methanol . yield : ˜ 20 mg ( lit : ˜ 475 mg ) of fine off - white crystals . m . p . : 167 - 168 ° c . ( lit : 173 - 175 ° c .) m . p . : 4 -( hydroxymethyl ) imidazole - hcl : 108 - 111 ° c . m . p . : imidazole - 4 - carboxylic acid : 294 - 295 ° c . ( lit . : battersby ar et al ., j chem soc ( perkin i ) 43 - 51 , 1980 ) the results show that similar sets of several uca oxidation products can be formed with uv irradiation and without ( fenton reaction type ). three products were identified so far . we assume that these compounds occur in the upper layer of the epidermis as well and a method will be developed to determine uca oxidation products in vivo . the simultaneous break - down of imcho and the gain of imcooh after photooxidation has led to our speculation that imcho is slowly oxidized to imcooh during storage . many aldehydes are gradually oxidized to the corresponding carboxylic acids in contact with oxygen species . two phenomena out of the puzzling mechanism of cis - uca induced immuno - suppression can be solved if uca oxidation products would have immunosuppressive properties . first , the abrogation of the immunosuppression by antioxidants ( 19 - 21 ) in the model of contact hyper - sensitivity measuring ear swelling response . in our scope , the formation of uca oxidation products is prevented , because of neutralization of the hydroxyl radicals by the antioxidants . second , the lack of correlation between cis - uca formation by uv - b and uv - a ( 18 ). no immunosuppression was found with uv - a irradiaton , despite the fact that cis - uca was formed . in our scope , this finding may be explained as the inability of uv - a to photooxidize uca . consequently , no uca photooxidation products are formed with uv - a ( results section ) and because of that immunosuppression would not occur . our findings and the above assumptions may point to a important role for uca ( photo ) oxidation products in the skin immune system . fig1 . compounds tested in this study for hydroxyl radical scavenging ability . ( a ) trans - uca , ( b ) cis - uca , ( c ) l - histidine , ( d ) dihydrouca or 3 -( imidazol - 4 - yl ) propionic acid , ( e ) imidazole acetic acid , ( f ) 2 - methylimidazole , ( g ) imidazole , ( h ) l - alanine , ( i ) trans - 2 - furylacrylic acid and ( j ) uric acid . fig2 . a determination of the second order rate constants of trans - uca and cis - uca with hydroxyl radicals . the rate constant was derived from the slope of the line ( k = slope × k dr ×[ dr ]× a 0 ), where a 0 is the absorbance , measured in the absence of hydroxyl radical scavenger . k dr was taken as 3 . 1 × 10 9 m − 1 · s − 1 , derived from pulse radiolysis studies [ 8 ], and [ dr ]= 3 mm . the rate constants in this particular set were 8 . 49 and 7 . 33 × 10 9 m − 1 · s − 1 for trans - uca and cis - uca , respectively . the other scavengers were studied similarly . fig3 . chromatograms of 80 μm trans - urocanic acid in 20 mm phoshate buffer ph 7 . 2 . the initial concentration of hydrogen peroxide was 500 μm . injection volume was 80 μl . a . with hydrogen peroxide ; not irradiated , b . without hydrogen peroxide ; irradiated with a wg280 filtered xenon - arc lamp , c . with hydrogen peroxide and irradiated as 1b , d . with hydrogen peroxide and irradiated with a wg335 filtered xenon - arc lamp . peaks assigned with a - h correspond with photooxidation products . separation was performed on a alltima c 18 column with uv detection at 210 nm . the eluent consisted of 10 mm sodium phosphate ph 7 . 2 with 1 . 0 mm tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulphate . further experimental conditions are described in the text . fig4 . comparable chromatographic patterns in the formation of uca oxidation products from 80 μm trans - uca and 500 μm hydrogen peroxide in water ( no buffer ). left : after fenton oxidation with 250 μm fe 2 + and right : after photooxidation with ‘ full ’ uv , containing a uv - b dose of 32 kj . m − 2 . the cis - uca peak is missing after fenton oxidation , due to the absence of photoisomerization . peak assignation ( a - g ) was done as in fig1 c . peaks b , c and d refer to imidazole - 4 - carboxaldehyde , imidazole - 4 - acetic acid and imidazole - 4 - carboxylic acid , respectively . chromatographic conditions were identical to those applied in fig3 . fig5 . inhibition of contact hypersensitivity as a reduction of ear swelling response from balb / c mice . the positive control ( no inhibition ) was normalized to 100 %. im - mix is a mix of the three identified imidazoles ( see identifications ) and pomix iii is a mix of the three identified imidazoles among several other unidentified uca oxidation products , obtained upon extensive photooxidation . rudimental trans - and cis - uca are present in lower amounts than 3 % ( by weight ). 1 . morrison , h . 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