Penicillin minor determinants: History and relevance for current diagnosis.

Objective: To review the history of the penicillin minor determinants and evaluate their relevance for current diagnosis.

Data Sources: Skin testing to detect immunoglobulin E (IgE) sensitivity to penicillins in patients with a history of penicillin allergy has been the subject of more than 55 years of published research involving tens of thousands of patients.

Study Selections: Selection of data was based on its relevance to the objective of this article.

Vicianin, prunasin, and beta-cyanoalanine in common vetch seed as sources of urinary thiocyanate in the rat.

When young rats were fed a diet containing common vetch seed for 1 month, they excreted in the urine approximately 7 times more thiocyanate than they had ingested. Vicianin, prunasin, and beta-cyanoalanine were identified as principal dietary sources of the excreted thiocyanate. Vicianin was isolated by chromatography and crystallization.

N epsilon-cyclosuccinyllysine: synthesis and formation from hemisuccinylated polylysine and its hapten conjugates with sulfamethoxazole during acid hydrolysis.

The novel amino acid N epsilon-cyclosuccinyllysine (4) forms as a side reaction during acid hydrolysis of N epsilon-hemisuccinylated succinylsulfamethoxazole-polylysine conjugates. The presence of 4 in hydrolysates can be obscured in amino acid analysis. Identification of 4 was based on chromatographic and electrophoretic comparisons with authentic N epsilon-cyclosuccinyllysine, which was synthesized in high yield by acid-catalyzed ring closure, under anhydrous conditions, of N epsilon-hemisuccinyl-L-lysine.

Synthesis and characterization of protein and polylysine conjugates of sulfamethoxazole and sulfanilic acid for investigation of sulfonamide drug allergy.

Conjugates of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) with human serum albumin (HSA), transferrin (TR), and poly(L-lysine) (PL, degrees of polymerization 16 and 430) have been prepared. As a model, succinylSMX-glycine methyl ester was synthesized by carbodiimide and active ester routes. The proteins and PL were acylated with succinylSMX succinimido ester, affording conjugates (succinylSMX)2-21-HSA, (succinylSMX)17,27-TR, (succinylSMX)11-Lys16, and (succinylSMX)71-Lys430 in which SMX was linked by a spacer chain of four carbons.