title: Mass spectrometric analysis of nitroxyl-mediated protein modification: comparison of products formed with free and protein-based cysteines.
abstract: Although biologically active, nitroxyl (HNO) remains one of the most poorly studied NO(x). Protein-based thiols are suspected targets of HNO, forming either a disulfide or sulfinamide (RSONH2) through an N-hydroxysulfenamide (RSNHOH) addition product. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is used here to examine the products formed during incubation of thiol proteins with the HNO donor, Angeli's salt (AS; Na2N2O3). Only the disulfide, cystine, was formed in incubates of 15 mM free Cys with equimolar AS at pH 7.0-7.4. In contrast, the thiol proteins (120-180 microM), human calbindin D(28k) (HCalB), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), and bovine serum albumin (BSA) gave four distinct types of derivatives in incubates containing 0.9-2.5 mM AS. Ions at M + n x 31 units were detected in the ESI mass spectra of intact HCalB (n = 1-5) and GAPDH (n = 2), indicating conversion of thiol groups on these proteins to RSONH2 (+31 units). An ion at M + 14 dominated the mass spectrum of BSA, and intramolecular sulfinamide cross-linking of Cys34 to one of its neighboring Lys or Arg residues would account for this mass increase. Low abundant M + 14 adducts were observed for HCalB, which additionally formed mixed disulfides when free Cys was present in the AS incubates. Cys149 and Cys153 formed an intramolecular disulfide in the AS/GAPDH incubates. Since AS also produces nitrite above pH 5 (HN2O3(-) --> HNO + NO2(-)), incubation with NaNO2 served to confirm that protein modification was HNO-mediated, and prior blocking with the thiol-specific reagent, N-ethylmaleimide, demonstrated that thiols are the targets of HNO. The results provide the first systematic characterization of HNO-mediated derivatization of protein thiols.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H4B 1R6.
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Ann M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: English
mesh_terms: D003545:Cysteine / Q000737:chemistry*; D009589:Nitrogen Oxides / Q000737:chemistry*; D010449:Peptide Mapping; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D009589:Nitrogen Oxides; D011506:Proteins; C039900:nitroxyl; D003545:Cysteine