Cystamine and cysteamine as inhibitors of transglutaminase activity in vivo

Cystamine is commonly used as a transglutaminase inhibitor. This disulphide undergoes reduction in vivo to the aminothiol compound, cysteamine. Thus, the mechanism by which cystamine inhibits transglutaminase activity in vivo could be due to either cystamine or cysteamine, which depends on the local redox environment. Cystamine inactivates transglutaminases by promoting the oxidation of two vicinal cysteine residues on the enzyme to an allosteric disulphide, whereas cysteamine acts as a competitive inhibitor for transamidation reactions catalyzed by this enzyme. The latter mechanism is likely to result in the formation of a unique biomarker, N-(γ-glutamyl)cysteamine that could serve to indicate how cyst(e)amine acts to inhibit transglutaminases inside cells and the body.