Hydrogen peroxide, methionine oxidation

Yin J, Chu JW, Ricci MS, Brems DN, Wang DI, Trout BL. Effects of antioxidants on the hydrogen peroxide-mediated oxidation of methionine residues in granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and human parathyroid hormone fragment 13-34. Pharm Res 2004 21 (12) 2377—2383. 

There is some information concerning the reaction of ozone with chemicals under aqueous conditions. The information available suggests that double-bond cleavage takes place, just as it does under nonaqueous conditions, except that ozonides are not formed. Instead, the zwitterionk intermediate reacts with water, producing an aldehyde and hydrogen peroxide. In addition to double-bond cleavage, a number of other oxidations are possible. Mudd et showed that the susceptibility of amino acids is in the order cysteine, tryptophan, methionine. 

Cytochrome c has 4 methionine residues, two of which are covalently linked to the haem moiety One of the other two methionine residues is coordinated to the iron in the axial position The major S 2 p band of the crystalline compound appears at 162.6 eV attributable to the methionine residues. Prolongued irradiation causes an increase of the RSOJ or the sulphate band from 28% to 40% (Table 2). When aqueous cytochrome c is recorded, the amount of oxidised sulphur rises to 63% of the methionine sulphur band. The possible extraneously bound redox active transition metals, probably, have created a metal driven Haber Weiss reaction which led to the marked amount of oxidised sulphur observed. Splitting of the iron-sulphur bonding by cyanide results in dramatic increase of the 167.7 band and the additional appearance of a S 2p signal at 164.3, probably due to RS=0 species. This oxidation is believed to be catalyzed by the haem iron. Hydrogen peroxide alone converts the methionine sulphur completly to sulphonic acid. 

Oxidation of methionine residues involves hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-catalyzed conversion of the terminal... 

The thioether side chains of methionine units in proteins can be oxidized with hydrogen peroxide to the corresponding sulfones (Eq. 3-48). They can also be alkylated, e.g., by CH3I to form R—S+(CH3)2. 

The sulfur atom of methionine residues may be modified by formation of sulfonium salts or by oxidation to sulfoxides or the sulfone. The cyanosulfonium salt is not particularly useful for chemical modification studies because of the tendency for cyclization and chain cleavage (129). This fact, of course, makes it very useful in sequence work. Normally, the methionine residues of RNase can only be modified after denaturation of the protein, i.e., in acid pH, urea, detergents, etc. On treatment with iodoacetate or hydrogen peroxide, derivatives with more than one sulfonium or sulfoxide group did not form active enzymes on removal of the denaturing agent (130) [see, however, Jori et al. (131)]. There was an indication of some active monosubstituted derivatives (130, 132). 

Peroxynitrite is a nonspecific oxidant that reacts with all classes of biomolecules depleting low-molecular-weight antioxidants, initiating lipid peroxidation, damaging nucleic acids and proteins. Its reactions are much slower than those of the hydroxyl radical but are faster than those of hydrogen peroxide. Comparison of peroxynitrite reactivity with various amino acid residues of human serum albumin have shown that cysteine, methionine, and tryptophan are the most reactive... 

In order to prevent S-alkylation in the repetitive acid-cleavage steps required in a multistep peptide synthesis, the protection of methionine residues as sulfoxides was proposed by Iselin.f This approach has since been widely used for peptide synthesis in solution and on solid supports.Generally, oxidation of L-methionine yields a mixture of S- and R-sulf-oxides and, depending on the conditions used, even a mixture of the related sulfone. Thereby, at least by oxidation with hydrogen peroxide the R-sulfoxide is formed in a preferred manner (80%), whereas oxidation of L-methionine by tetrachloroauric(III) acid has been reported to produce stereospecifically the 5-sulfoxide diastereoisomer. Isomeric pure Met(O) derivatives are obtained by isolation of the isomers from the 5,/ -sulfoxide mixture, taking advantage of the differences in solubility of the picrate salts.0 ... 

The degradation product of the sulfonimn salt formed in the greatest yield after acid hydrolysis is undoubtedly a function of the structure of the affinity label. Generally, if the total amino acid composition of the modified protein was determined, low yields of methionine and increased yield of homoserine would be indicative, but certainly not proof of, the modification of a methionine residue. Sulfonium salts of methionine are generally not oxidized by hydrogen peroxide (Sigman and Blout 1967). 

This is usually isolated from yeast, and has a molecular weight of 53 000 with one heme b. It catalyzes the oxidation of ferrocytochrome c by hydrogen peroxide. It is the first peroxidase for which the structure has been determined. The imidazole axial ligand is His-174, while Arg-48, Trp-51 and His-52 provide distal catalytic groups. The mechanism involves nucleophilic attack of peroxide on the Fe, loss of the ROOH proton to the imidazole of His-52, and transfer of this proton to the leaving RO group. Compound I of cytochrome c peroxidase is red, and differs from HRPI in that the additional oxidizing equivalent is on a protein residue. ESR and ENDOR spectra have been interpreted in terms of a methionine-centred free radical. One possibility is that a ferryl porphyrin cation radical is formed with cytochrome c peroxidase (it is attractive to assume that this would be common to all peroxidases), but that cytochrome c peroxidase has a readily oxidizable substrate which reduces the porphyrin radical. ... 

Oxidation is one of the major causes of protein degradation and has been widely studied. The side-chains of histidine (His), methionine (Met), cysteine (Cys), tryptophan (Trp) and tyrosine (Tyr) residues in proteins are potential oxidation sites. The reactive oxygen species include singlet oxygen O2, superoxide radical O2, alkyl peroxide ROOH, hydrogen peroxide H2O2, hydroxy radicals (HO or HOO ), and halide complexes (CLO )." The reactivity of these oxidants is ... 

Reactions of Methionine, Cysteine and Cystine. Determination of Methionine by Hydrogen Peroxide Oxidation. J. biol. Chem. 129, 48l (1939). 

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