Lipoic acid is often found near the active sites of enzymes, usually bound to the peptide by

Question:

Lipoic acid is often found near the active sites of enzymes, usually bound to the peptide by a long, flexible amide linkage with a lysine residue.

(a) Is lipoic acid a mild oxidizing agent or a mild reducing agent? Draw it in both its oxidized and reduced forms.
(b) Show how lipoic acid might react with two Cys residues to form a disulfide bridge.
(c) Give a balanced equation for the hypothetical oxidation or reduction, as you predicted in part (a), of an aldehyde by lipoic acid.