What the heck does "Thiophilic" mean???

ApeXaviour

"Toxic inorganic elements are usually thiophilic with minimal biological role and are able to displace essential elements"

Can't find it in any books I have, google has plenty of examples but no definitions.. It strikes me as one of those things everybody assumes you know!
Godrot you chemistry RESITS!!!

PrecariousNuts

from a bit of googling I found it used in conjunction with thermophilic, a quick search revealed thio to mean containing sulfur. I'm guessing it means "Requiring sulfur for normal development of certain bacteria/organisms"

ApeXaviour

Thanks. I wish I was good at google. Bloody thing just makes me sweat with frustration

John

Thiophilic compounds and elements are poisonous materials that bind to the sulfur part of the amino acid cysteine (which normally forms disulfide bonds in proteins). Normally these cannot cross the blood brain barrier but when they bind to the sulfur in cysteine they can piggy back on the protein through the blood brain barrier and then bind to proteins in the brain.

You repeating SF chemistry?

ApeXaviour

Indeed I am John, btw ur a gentleman.

dudara

The suffix "philic" means the opposite of "phobic" as far as I remember. Hydrophobic surfaces repel water, hydophilic surfaces do not. If "thio" is then related to sulphur, then you could roughly translate as "sulphur loving"

does that make any sense?

Capt'n Midnight

Can't say I've heard of thiophilic before. Friends of Theodore ?

Usually heard of thio as hypo
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=thiosulfate+hypo&spell=1

Some minerals are adsorbed inadvertantly and are toxic for that reason, can't remember the name but there is something that gets taken up instead of calcium that is toxic. Strontium ??

Does cysteine s-s bond act as a chelating agent ?

John

Yeah, I think it does act as a chelating agent. I think thiophillic is really only seen when you study inorganic medicinal chemistry, it's part of metal poisoning, lead and mercury and all that jazz.

ApeXaviour

Cheers lads.. Dudara that makes loadsa sense. And John, ur spot on. That's exactly what I was studying. You must have some affinity (that I lack entirely, hence the resitting) towards chem if you know that and you're only in JF neurosci? http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=185258&page=1

You must mean JS right? Cos you'd be natural sci otherwise..

John

whoops, yes I just finished SF! I'm about to start JS neuroscience. So I'm in your year basically.

Woden

dudara wrote:

then you could roughly translate as "sulphur loving"

thats correct. you can use certain thiophillic chemicals if you need to mop up sulphur from a reaction basically they are chemicals with a high affinity for sulphur.

similary you can have oxyphillic chemicals