Protein oxidation acids

Several powerful oxidants are produced during the course of metabolism, in both blood cells and most other cells of the body. These include superoxide (02 ), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), peroxyl radicals (ROO ), and hydroxyl radicals (OH ). The last is a particularly reactive molecule and can react with proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and other molecules to alter their structure and produce tissue damage. The reactions listed in Table 52-4 play an important role in forming these oxidants and in disposing of them each of these reactions will now be considered in turn. 

The significance of protein oxidation became paramount with the advent of recombinant protein biologies used as human therapeutics. Careful characterization of protein stability is essential to maintaining the efficacy of protein pharmaceuticals. If even a single side chain amino acid residue becomes oxidized, then a protein therapeutic may not have the same activity in vivo as the unmodified protein. 

The O-ECAT reagent is a superior alternative to the use of 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH Chapter 1, Section 1.1) in the study of protein oxidation. DNPH modification produces detectable complexes, but it does not provide information as to what amino acids are involved. O-ECAT modifies carbonyl end products of protein oxidation and in addition, it can provide exact information as to the amino acids that were oxidized. Mass spec analysis of modified proteins performed after proteolysis gives the exact amino acid sequences including the sites of O-ECAT reagent modification. The same antibody that is specific for the metal chelate portion of the standard ECAT reagent also can be used to capture and detect the O-ECAT... 

Arteel and Sies (1999) examined procyanidin oligomers of different size, isolated from the seeds of Theobroma cacao, for their ability to protect against nitration of tyrosine. Serraino and others (2003) investigated antioxidant activity of the blackberry juice and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside on endothelial dysfunction in cells and in vascular rings exposed to peroxynitrite. However, more work is needed in this area, and the confounding effects of oxidized protein/amino acids in the diet need to be elucidated. 

In earlier studies the in vitro transition metal-catalyzed oxidation of proteins and the interaction of proteins with free radicals have been studied. In 1983, Levine [1] showed that the oxidative inactivation of enzymes and the oxidative modification of proteins resulted in the formation of protein carbonyl derivatives. These derivatives easily react with dinitrophenyl-hydrazine (DNPH) to form protein hydrazones, which were used for the detection of protein carbonyl content. Using this method and spin-trapping with PBN, it has been demonstrated [2,3] that protein oxidation and inactivation of glutamine synthetase (a key enzyme in the regulation of amino acid metabolism and the brain L-glutamate and y-aminobutyric acid levels) were sharply enhanced during ischemia- and reperfusion-induced injury in gerbil brain. 

Although metal-catalyzed protein oxidation is undoubtedly a very effective oxidative process, the origin of free metal ions under in vivo conditions is still uncertain (see Chapter 21). However, protein oxidation can probably be initiated by metal-containing enzymes. Mukhopadhyay and Chatterjee [31] have shown that NADPH-stimulated oxidation of microsomal proteins was mediated by cytochrome P-450 and occurred in the absence of free metal ions. It is important that in contrast to metal ion-stimulated oxidation of proteins, ascorbate inhibited and not enhanced P-450-dependent protein oxidation reacting with the oxygenated P-450 complex. The following mechanism of P-450-dependent oxidation of the side chain protein amino acid residues has been proposed ... 

HOCl-mediated protein oxidation accelerates under pathophysiological conditions. Thus, proteins from extracellular matrix obtained from advanced human atherosclerotic lesions contained the enhanced levels of oxidized amino acids (DOPA and dityrosine) compared to healthy arterial tissue [44], It was also found that superoxide enhanced the prooxidant effect of hypochlorite in protein oxidation supposedly by the decomposition of chloramines and chlor-amides forming nitrogen-centered free radicals and increasing protein fragmentation [45], In addition to chlorination, hypochlorite is able to oxidize proteins. The most readily oxidized amino acid residue of protein is methionine. Methionine is reversibly oxidized by many oxidants including hypochlorite to methionine sulfide and irreversibly to methionine sulfone [46] ... 

In contrast to numerous literature data, which indicate that protein oxidation, as a rule, precedes lipid peroxidation, Parinandi et al. [66] found that the modification of proteins in rat myocardial membranes exposed to prooxidants (ferrous ion/ascorbate, cupric ion/tert-butyl-hydroperoxide, linoleic acid hydroperoxide, and soybean lipoxygenase) accompanied lipid peroxidation initiated by these prooxidant systems. 

In relation to cancer, there is some evidence that highly oxidized and heated fats may have carcinogenic characteristics. HNE (4-hydroxy-2-frans-nonenal), a secondary lipid peroxidation product derived from linoleic acid oxidation, has assumed particular interest because it has shown cytotoxic and mutagenic properties. Its toxicity, as well other secondary lipid peroxidation products (HHE 4-hydroxy-2-frans-hexenal and HOE 4-h yd roxy-2-trans-oc ten al), is explained through the high reactivity with proteins, nucleic acids, DNA, and RNA. Research links them to different diseases such as atherosclerosis, Alzheimer s, and liver diseases (Seppanen and Csallany, 2006). Research is rapidly progressing, but results are still not conclusive. 

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