Artificial Radical Generating and Scavenging Systems: Synthesis and Utilization of Photo-Fenton Regent in Biological Systems

A photo-labile compound which is bioinactive but, upon irradiation with light, yields bioactive species is called as "caged compound". Photolysis of caged compounds generating bioactive species, has become a general method to produce a desired amounts of bioactive species in the specific time interval at the desired place or area of the target biological systems. For this purpose, we designed and synthesized caged hydroxyl radical., "Photo-Fenton Reagent" NP-IIl. NP-IIl has a strong absorption maximum at 377 nm and yields hydroxyl radicals upon UV light irradiation. The antioxidant activity of the ${\alpha}$ -lipoic acid and other naturally occurring compounds has been examined by using NP-IIl as a molecular probe. For example, upon photoirradiation of NP-lII with BSA or apolipoprotein of human low density (LDL), the significant oxidative modifications were observed in both cases. The oxidation was completely suppressed in the presence of ${\alpha}$-lipoic acid, which clearly demonstrates the strong hydroxyl radical scavenging activity of ${\alpha}$-lipoic acid. Other applications of NP-lII will also be described