The effect of HOCl-induced modifications on phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) structure and function

Oxidation by reactive species can cause changes in protein function and affect cell signaling pathways. Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is a negative regulator of the PI3K/AKT pathway and is known to be inhibited by oxidation, but its oxidation by the myeloperoxidase-derived oxidant hypochlorous acid (HOCl) has not previously been investigated. PTEN-GST was treated with HOCl:protein ratios from 15:1 to 300:1. Decreases in PTEN phosphatase activity were observed at treatment ratios of 60:1 and higher, which correlated with the loss of the intact protein band and appearance of high molecular weight aggregates in SDS-PAGE. LC-MSMS was used to map oxidative modifications (oxPTMs) in PTEN-GST tryptic peptides and label-free quantitative proteomics used to determine their relative abundance. Twenty different oxPTMs of PTEN were identified, of which 14 were significantly elevated upon HOCl treatment in a dose-dependent manner. Methionine and cysteine residues were the most heavily oxidized; the percentage modification depended on their location in the sequence, reflecting differences in susceptibility. Other modifications included tyrosine chlorination and dichlorination, and hydroxylations of tyrosine, tryptophan, and proline. Much higher levels of oxidation occurred in the protein aggregates compared to the monomeric protein for certain methionine and tyrosine residues located in the C2 and C-terminal domains, suggesting that their oxidation promoted protein destabilization and aggregation; many of the residues modified were classified as buried according to their solvent accessibility. This study provides novel information on the susceptibility of PTEN to the inflammatory oxidant HOCl and its effects on the structure and activity of the protein

A generalised module for the selective extracellular accumulation of recombinant proteins

Background: It is widely believed that laboratory strains of Escherichia coli, including those used for industrial production of proteins, do not secrete proteins to the extracellular milieu.Results: Here, we report the development of a generalised module, based on an E. coli autotransporter secretion system, for the production of extracellular recombinant proteins. We demonstrate that a wide variety of structurally diverse proteins can be secreted as soluble proteins when linked to the autotransporter module. Yields were comparable to those achieved with other bacterial secretion systems.Conclusions: The advantage of this module is that it relies on a relatively simple and easily manipulated secretion system, exhibits no apparent limitation to the size of the secreted protein and can deliver proteins to the extracellular environment at levels of purity and yields sufficient for many biotechnological applications

A high-sensitivity electrochemiluminescence-based ELISA for the measurement of the oxidative stress biomarker, 3-nitrotyrosine, in human blood serum and cells

The generation of 3-nitrotyrosine, within proteins, is a post-translational modification resulting from oxidative or nitrative stress. It has been suggested that this modification could be used as a biomarker for inflammatory diseases. Despite the superiority of mass spectrometry-based determinations of nitrotyrosine, in a high-throughput clinical setting the measurement of nitrotyrosine by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is likely to be more cost-effective. ELISAs offer an alternative means to detect nitrotyrosine, but many commercially available ELISAs are insufficiently sensitive to detect nitrotyrosine in healthy human serum. Here, we report the development, validation and clinical application of a novel electrochemiluminescence-based ELISA for nitrotyrosine which provides superior sensitivity (e.g. a 50-fold increase in sensitivity compared with one of the tested commercial colorimetric ELISAs). This nitrotyrosine ELISA has the following characteristics: a lower limit of quantitation of 0.04 nM nitrated albumin equivalents; intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation of 6.5% and 11.3%, respectively; a mean recovery of 106 ± 3% and a mean linearity of 0.998 ± 0.001. Far higher nitration levels were measured in normal human blood cell populations when compared to plasma. Mass spectrometry was used to validate the new ELISA method. The analysis of the same set of chemically modified albumin samples using the ELISA method and mass spectrometry showed good agreement for the relative levels of nitration present in each sample. The assay was applied to serum samples from patients undergoing elective surgery which induces the human inflammatory response. Matched samples were collected before and one day after surgery. An increase in nitration was detected following surgery (median (IQR): 0.59 (0.00–1.34) and 0.97 (0.00–1.70) nitrotyrosine (fmol of nitrated albumin equivalents/mg protein) for pre- and post-surgery respectively. The reported assay is suitable for nitrotyrosine determination in patient serum samples, and may also be applicable as a means to determine oxidative stress in primary and cultured cell populations

Reversible oxidation of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) alters its interactions with signaling and regulatory proteins

Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is involved in a number of different cellular processes including metabolism, apoptosis, cell proliferation and survival. It is a redox-sensitive dual-specificity protein phosphatase that acts as a tumor suppressor by negatively regulating the PI3K/Akt pathway. While direct evidence of redox regulation of PTEN downstream signaling has been reported, the effect of PTEN redox status on its protein-protein interactions is poorly understood. PTEN-GST in its reduced and a DTT-reversible H2O2-oxidized form was immobilized on a glutathione-sepharose support and incubated with cell lysate to capture interacting proteins. Captured proteins were analyzed by LC-MSMS and comparatively quantified using label-free methods. 97 Potential protein interactors were identified, including a significant number that are novel. The abundance of fourteen interactors was found to vary significantly with the redox status of PTEN. Altered binding to PTEN was confirmed by affinity pull-down and Western blotting for Prdx1, Trx, and Anxa2, while DDB1 was validated as a novel interactor with unaltered binding. These results suggest that the redox status of PTEN causes a functional variation in the PTEN interactome. The resin capture method developed had distinct advantages in that the redox status of PTEN could be directly controlled and measured

Identification and relative quantification of tyrosine nitration in a model peptide using two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy

Nitration of tyrosine in proteins and peptides is a post-translational modification that occurs under conditions of oxidative stress. It is implicated in a variety of medical conditions, including neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases. However, monitoring tyrosine nitration and understanding its role in modifying biological function remains a major challenge. In this work, we investigate the use of electron-vibration-vibration (EVV) two-dimensional infrared (2DIR) spectroscopy for the study of tyrosine nitration in model peptides. We demonstrate the ability of EVV 2DIR spectroscopy to differentiate between the neutral and deprotonated states of 3-nitrotyrosine, and we characterize their spectral signatures using information obtained from quantum chemistry calculations and simulated EVV 2DIR spectra. To test the sensitivity of the technique, we use mixed-peptide samples containing various levels of tyrosine nitration, and we use mass spectrometry to independently verify the level of nitration. We conclude that EVV 2DIR spectroscopy is able to provide detailed spectroscopic information on peptide side-chain modifications and to detect nitration levels down to 1%. We further propose that lower nitration levels could be detected by introducing a resonant Raman probe step to increase the detection sensitivity of EVV 2DIR spectroscopy. (Graph Presented)