In the last decade thiotaurine, 2-aminoethane thiosulfonate, has been investigated as an inflammatory modulating agent as a result of its ability to release hydrogen sulfide (H2S) known to play regulatory roles in inflammation. Thiotaurine can be included in the "taurine family" due to structural similarity to taurine and hypotaurine, and is characterized by the presence of a sulfane sulfur moiety.
Nuclear medicine offers several techniques and procedures to image infection, but radiolabelled autologous white blood cells (WBCs) are still the gold standard. These cells are usually labelled with 111In or 99mTc bound to a hydrophobic chelating agent that allows these isotopes to pass through the plasma membrane and enter in the cytoplasm. The most common compound in Europe is HMPAO that efficiently chelates 99mTc. However, up to 20-40% of the complex is released from the cells in the first few hours.
A new, relatively fast and simple synthesis of the refractory sulfide CeS using electron beam irradiation has been developed. Differently from the most common procedures involving highly reactive and/or toxic precursors such as cerium hydride and carbon disulfide, the approach here presented is based on the electron beam irradiation of pellets composed of a mixture of cerium sesquisulfide, cerium dioxide and graphite powders, i.e., nontoxic and nonreactive materials in ambient conditions that do not need any special caution during their use.
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