Читать книгу Biochemistry For Dummies - John Moore T., Richard Langley H., John T. Moore - Страница 52

Under mild oxidation, two thiols join to form a disulfide. Mild reducing conditions, catalyzed by enzymes or through the use of certain reducing agents, reverse this process. Such formation of disulfide linkages is important in the chemistry of many proteins, such as insulin.

Amines are the most important biological bases. As bases, they can react with acids. The behavior is related to the behavior of ammonia.

 

 

 

 

Many medications have amine groups. Converting many of these amines to ammonium ions makes them more readily soluble in biological systems (mostly water). For example, the reaction of a medication with hydrochloric acid forms the chloride, which often appears on the label as the hydrochloride.

It’s possible to replace all the hydrogen atoms from an ammonium ion, , to produce a quaternary ammonium ion, .