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Crystalline structures of l-cysteine and l-cystine: a combined theoretical and experimental characterization

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Abstract

It is assumed that genetic diseases affecting the metabolism of cysteine and the kidney function lead to two different kinds of pathologies, namely cystinuria and cystinosis whereby generate l-cystine crystals. Recently, the presence of l-cysteine crystal has been underlined in the case of cystinosis. Interestingly, it can be strikingly seen that cystine ([–S–CH2–CH–(NH2)–COOH]2) consists of two cysteine (C3H7NO2S) molecules connected by a disulfide (S–S) bond. Therefore, the study of cystine and cysteine is important for providing a better understanding of cystinuria and cystinosis. In this paper, we elucidate the discrepancy between l-cystine and l-cysteine by investigating the theoretical and experimental infrared spectra (IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) as well as Raman spectra aiming to obtain a better characterization of abnormal deposits related to these two genetic pathologies.

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Acknowledgements

Computational resources and services were also provided by the Shared ICT Services Centre funded by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Flemish Supercomputer Center (VSC) and FWO. EH wishes to thank the VUB for a Global Minds. YS wishes to thank for a China Scholarship Council (CSC) grant for performing her research at the VUB. FT wishes to acknowledge the VUB for support, among other through a Strategic Research Program awarded to his group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eenheid Algemene Chemie (ALGC), Materials Modeling Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussel, Belgium

    Yangyang Su, Etienne P. Hessou, Ali Moussadik & Frederik Tielens

  2. State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Fiber Reinforced Light Composite Materials, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Yangyang Su & Kezhi Li

  3. IQAL, Instituto de Química Aplicada del Litoral, CONICET-UNL, 3000, Santa Fe, Argentina

    Estefania Colombo, Gustavo Belletti & Paola Quaino

  4. Laboratoire LISE, UMR 8235, CNRS-SU, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France

    Ivan T. Lucas

  5. UMR S1155, INSERM/UPMC, 4 Rue de la Chine, 75970 Cedex 20, Paris, France

    Vincent Frochot & Michel Daudon

  6. AP—HP, Hôpital Tenon, Explorations Fonctionnelles Multidisciplinaires, 4 Rue de la Chine, 75970 Cedex 20, Paris, France

    Vincent Frochot & Michel Daudon

  7. Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, 91405, Orsay, France

    Stéphan Rouzière

  8. Institut de Chimie Physique, Université Paris Saclay, 310, rue Michel Magat, 91400, Orsay, France

    Dominique Bazin

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  1. Yangyang Su
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Correspondence to Frederik Tielens.

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Su, Y., Hessou, E.P., Colombo, E. et al. Crystalline structures of l-cysteine and l-cystine: a combined theoretical and experimental characterization. Amino Acids 54, 1123–1133 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-022-03144-6

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