Interaction of heterocyclic thiols/thiones eliminated from cephalosporins with iodine and its biological implications

This study provides the first experimental evidence that the heterocyclic side chains present in cephalosporins not only inhibits peroxidase-catalyzed iodination reactions, but also reacts with iodine to produce stable charge-transfer complexes. The peroxidase inhibition and reactivity toward iodine must be taken into account while designing new antibiotics based on cephalosporins as these activities may adversely affect the thyroid activity.