Biomimetic chemistry on the protection of cis phospholipids from the thiyl radical isomerization by common antioxidants

In this paper the evaluation of cis phospholipids geometry protection from the thiyl radical isomerization in the presence of common antioxidants is studied. Thus, large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) of glycerophospholipids containing oleate moieties were used as biomimetic model to demonstrate that hydrophilic ascorbic acid and urate, and hydrophobic all-trans retinol acetate and ?-tocopherol, are able to inhibit cis-trans isomerization from the thiyl radicals that are known to react as efficient isomerizing species. The synergistic effect obtained by a mix of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic antioxidants at in vivo concentrations is also proved to exert an extraordinary protection for the integrity of cis lipid geometry.