Zinc Pyrithione

Zinc Pyrithione is an antifungal and antibacterial agent disrupting membrane transport by blocking the proton pump^[1]. Zinc Pyrithione is also a copper ionophore that delivers copper into cells and is a useful tool for studying cuproptosis^[2]. In Vitro: Zinc pyrithione is considered as a coordination complex of zinc. The pyrithione ligands, which are formally monoanions, are chelated to Zn ²⁺ via oxygen and sulfur centers. In the crystalline state, zinc pyrithione exists as a centrosymmetric dimer, where each zinc is bonded to two sulfur and three oxygen centers. In solution, however, the dimers dissociate via scission of one Zn-O bond. Zinc pyrithione, which is a dimer but is probably biologically active as a monomer, induces plasma membrane depolarization with half-maximal effect (K_1/2) of about 0.3 mM^[1].
Zinc Pyrithione (10 nM-10 μM; 72 hours) significantly induces cell death in AAVS1 cells^[2].