The Use of Gel Electrophoresis and Mass Spectrometry to Identify Nitroproteins in Nervous System Tumors

Abstract

Protein tyrosine nitration is an important molecular event in nervous system tumor such as glioma and pituitary adenomas. It is the essential step to identify the protein targets and exact modified sites of tyrosine nitration for addressing the biological roles of protein tyrosine nitration in nervous system tumors and discovering effective biomarkers to understand in-depth molecular mechanisms and determine new diagnosis strategy and novel therapeutic targets. One/two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (1DGE, 2DGE), or nitrotyrosine affinity column (NTAC), coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) have been successfully applied in the analysis of nitroproteins in nervous system tumors. This article address the basic concept of protein tyrosine nitration, nitroproteomics methodology based on gel electrophoresis/immunoaffinity enrichment and tandem mass spectrometry, and the current status of nitroprotein study in nervous system tumors. The established nitroproteomics approach is easily translated to study other diseases