glyoxylate

Glyoxylate (also known as glyoxylic acid) is an endogenous two-carbon alpha-keto-acid and metabolic intermediate. It is being developed as a novel, fast-acting therapeutic antidote for cyanide poisoning. Unlike traditional cyanide countermeasures that rely solely on chemical scavenging or chelation, glyoxylate acts through a dual mechanism: it directly reacts with cyanide to form a stable cyanohydrin adduct, and it undergoes metabolism by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) to reverse cyanide-induced redox imbalances in both the cytosol and mitochondria. Additionally, preclinical research has explored glyoxylate as a potential therapeutic or preventive agent in colorectal cancer, where its administration leads to glycine accumulation via alanine-glyoxylate aminotransferase (AGXT) activity, triggering glycine receptor-mediated calcium dysregulation and apoptosis in tumor cells. In laboratory research, glyoxylate is also widely utilized as a reagent to induce calcium oxalate nephrolithiasis (kidney stones) in animal models.

Other names

formylformic acidglyoxylic acidoxoacetic acidoxoethanoic acidsodium glyoxylate