Voltammetry Study of an Anti-HIV Compound by means of a Thin Organic Membrane

Cyclic and square wave voltammetries have been used to study electrochemical behaviour of an anti-HIV agent (Guttiferone A) at the liquid-liquid interface. The thin organic membrane is formed by an organic solvent containing redox probe. Guttiferone A, a benzophenone (BP) with appropriate electrolyte. It is demonstrated that BP possesses three reduction systems due to the redox transformation of the three tautomeric forms that lead to the migration of proton between the hydroxyl group in position 4 and the carbonyl group in positions 2 and 10. The transfer of proton from the aqueous solution to the organic phase is crucial for the redox transformation of BP into the organic membrane. The voltammograms obtained are strongly influenced by the pH of the aqueous phase. The electrochemical mechanism consists of 2e？/2H+ exchange to form the separate redox compound BPH2. 1. Introduction Numerous benzophenones reported in the literature are known to possess various biological activities [1]. Their antimicrobial activities are due to their ability to act as (i) potent inhibitors in electron transport [2], (ii) a model for the reduction of aromatic ketones, especially in an aqueous solution [3, 4] where the main product is benzopinacole, and (iii) mediator in the biosynthesis of a variety of polyisoprenylated benzophenones [5–8], a class of compounds which is not only chemically interesting due to their structurally complex features but also pharmacologically valuable. More specifically, Guttiferone A (Figure 1) and its analogues are known to possess, antioxidant [9], cytotoxic [10, 11], and cancer chemopreventive [12] properties. Recent results revealed that Guttiferone A possesses different biological properties such as the cytoprotection against HIV-1 in vitro [6, 13]. Most of the studies concerning Guttiferone are devoted to only biological aspects. The electrochemistry of Guttiferone is less described [14]. Electrochemistry is devoted to understanding the reactivity of molecules through the study of the changes in their properties during electron transfer processes. In many other research areas, such as pharmacology, these relationships are important, since they provide the basis for intelligent design of new drugs or treatments for specific diseases. The areas of research related to molecular, biochemical, and analytical electrochemistry for the analysis of reaction mechanisms and structure-reactivity relationships are of great importance in elucidating the human body’s metabolic processing drugs and of the effect of drugs on the body [15–17]. Figure 1: