Protein disulfide groups

Mechanism of Dyeing. Wool (qv) is a complex protein polymer based on amino acid building blocks, and the polymer chains are cross-linked by disulfide groups. Amino acids (qv) contain both amino and carboxyUc acid groups and therefore the wool polymer contains both —NH2... 

Figure 1.73 The disulfide group of a cystamine-modified protein may undergo disulfide interchange reactions with another sulfhydryl-containing protein to yield a disulfide-linked conjugate.

Figure 14.10 The crosslinker SPDP can be reacted with amine particles to create thiol-reactive pyridyl disulfide groups on the surface. Thiol-containing proteins or other thiol molecules can be reacted with these activated particles to result in disulfide linkages, which are reversible by reduction.

Iodoacetate derivatives have been used for decades to block or crosslink sulfhydryl groups in proteins and other molecules (Chapter 1, Section 5.2). At mildly alkaline pH values (pH 8-8.5), iodoacetyl derivatives are almost entirely selective toward the cysteine —SH groups in proteins. Disulfide reduction or thiolation reagents can be used to create the required sulfhydryl groups on proteins containing no free sulfhydryls. 

A derivative of Sulfo-SBED containing a thiol-reactive pyridyl disulfide group on its thermo-reactive arm has been reported for modification of bait proteins containing a cysteine residue. 

Figure 28.14 A trifunctional label transfer reagent containing a thiol-reactive pyridyl disulfide group, a photo-reactive phenyl azide, and a biotin affinity tag. This compound can be used to label bait proteins through available thiol groups and capture interacting prey proteins by photoreactive conjugation.

Peroxynitrite easily oxidizes nonprotein and protein thiyl groups. In 1991, Radi et al. [102] have shown that peroxynitrite efficiently oxidizes cysteine to its disulfide form and bovine serum albumin (BSA) to some derivative of sulfenic acid supposedly via the decomposition to nitric dioxide and hydroxyl radicals. Pryor et al. [124] suggested that the oxidation of methionine and its analog 2-keto-4-thiomethylbutanic acid occurred by two competing mechanisms, namely, the second-order reaction of sulfide formation and the one-electron... 

Mammalian thioredoxin reductases are a family of selenium-containing pyridine nucleotide-disulfide oxidoreductases. These enzymes catalyze NADPH-dependent reduction of the redox protein thioredoxin (Trx), which contains a redox-active disulfide and dithiol group and by itself may function as an efficient cytosolic antioxidant [77]. One of the functions of Trx/ thioredoxin reductase system is the NADPH-catalyzed reduction of protein disulfide [78] ... 

Inhibits serine proteases such as trypsin and chymotrypsin. Also inhibits cysteine proteases (reversible by reduced thiols) and mammalian acetylcholinesterase Inhibits ATPase, alkaline phosphatase and tyrosine phosphatase Reagent for maintaining -SH groups in the reduced state. Effective for reducing protein disulfide bonds prior to SDS-PAGE... 

Many secretory proteins—e. g., pancreatic ribonuclease (RNAse see p. 74)—contain several disulfide bonds that are only formed oxidatively from SH groups after translation. The eight cysteine residues of the RNAse can in principle form 105 different pairings, but only the combination of the four disulfide bonds shown on p. 75 provides active enzyme. Incorrect pairings can block further folding or lead to unstable or insoluble conformations. The enzyme protein disulfide iso-merase [1] accelerates the equilibration between paired and unpaired cysteine residues, so that incorrect pairs can be quickly split before the protein finds its final conformation. 

---