New Approach to Determination of Phenoxyl Free Radicals by Stopped‐Flow Spectrofluorimetry

Abstract

A simple and highly sensitive method to quantify the rates of production of phenoxyl radicals in enzyme reaction is described. This method employs the peroxidase‐catalyzed reaction between chlorophenols and hydroperoxide to generate phenoxyl free radicals, which can enhance dimerization of L‐tyrosine. The product, dityrosine, was monitored fluorometrically at the excitation/emission wavelength of 320/410 nm and the initial rate of accelerated‐accumulation of dityrosine represents the formation rate of phenoxyl free radicals. With this method, the phenoxyl radicals generated in oxidation of chlorophenols with hydrogen peroxide, catalyzed by horseradish peroxidase, were investigated. Phenoxyl radicals generated from as low as 5.0×10⁻⁹ M 2,4‐dichlorophenol, for example, can be readily detected with a relative standard deviation of 2.6% for 9 replicated determination. The detection limits of phenoxyl radicals produced by various chlorophenols are 4.2×10⁻⁹, 1.1×10⁻⁹, 1.0×10⁻¹⁰, 2.8×10⁻⁸, and 1.1×10⁻⁷ M for 2‐chlorophenol, 4‐chlorophenol, 2,4‐dichlorophenol, 2,4,6‐trichlorophenol, and 2,3,4,6‐tetrachlorophenol, respectively. The possible pathway of the reaction is proposed. The protocol is suitable for quantification of free radicals in enzyme reaction and shows promise in being applied to biological systems.

Keywords:

• Kinetic analysis
• stopped‐flow spectrofluorimetry
• phenoxyl radicals
• horseradish peroxidase
• L‐tyrosine

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20275027 and 20377032).