Abstract
Summary and Conclusions
The effect of antiarthritic drugs on a sulfhydryl-disulfide interchange reaction between rat serum sulfhydryl groups and dithiobisnitrobenzoic acid was determined. Gold sodium thiomalate and gold thioglucose produced potent, dose dependent inhibition of the interchange reaction. Thus, the interchange reaction utilizing rat serum appears to be a sensitive and quantitative procedure to measure the sulfhydryl group reactivity of potential antiarthritic agents.
Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (phenylbutazone, indomethacin and acetyl-salicylic acid) administered in vitro or in vivo, accelerated the interchange reaction in diluted rat serum. The mechanism by which these agents produce this effect and its relevance to their therapeutic activity is not known at the present time. In contrast, the in vivo administration of Prednisolone or chlo-roquine diphosphate did not significantly alter sulfhydryl group reactivity in rat serum.
The results of our investigation suggest that the sulfhydryl-disulfide interchange reaction between rat serum sulfhydryl groups and dithiobisnitrobenzoic acid is a useful procedure in establishing the profile of potential antiarthritic agents.
The authors express their appreciation to Sandra Davidheiser, Michele DeCoste, Joseph Flagiello, Jr., and Sophronia Morgan for valuable technical assistance.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.