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Chain-breaking activity of carotenes in lipid peroxidation: a theoretical study
Jian-Jhih Guo1, Hong-Yi Hsieh, Ching-Han Hu
1Department of Chemistry, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua 50058, Taiwan.
Abstract:
Chain-breaking reactions against lipid peroxidation performed by carotenes, including beta-carotene (beta-CAR) and lycopene (LYC), have been studied using density functional theory. We chose linoleic acid (LAH) as the lipid model and examined two mechanisms: hydrogen abstraction and addition. Our computed reaction diagrams reveal that the addition mechanism is able to offer a larger extent of chain-breaking protection than hydrogen abstraction. In the case of hydrogen abstraction, the resulting carotene radical CAR(-H)(*) has a smaller O(2) affinity than the linoleic acid radical (LA(*)). Formation of the addition adduct radical ROO-CAR(*) is energetically favorable, and it has an even smaller tendency to react with O(2) than CAR(-H)(*). Comparatively, ROO-beta-CAR(*) is less likely to react with O(2) than ROO-LYC(*). Both the hydrogen abstraction and addition radicals (CAR(-H)(*) and ROO-CAR(*)) react readily with a second ROO(*) radical via either hydrogen abstraction or addition.
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