Fluorogenic Tagging of Peptide and Protein 3-Nitrotyrosine with 4-(Aminomethyl)benzenesulfonic Acid for Quantitative Analysis of Protein Tyrosine Nitration

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Protein 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT) has been recognized as an important biomarker of nitroxidative stress associated with inflammatory and degenerative diseases, and biological aging. Analysis of protein-bound 3-NT continues to represent a challenge since in vivo it frequently does not accumulate on proteins in amounts detectable by quantitative analytical methods. Here, we describe a novel approach of fluorescent tagging and quantitation of peptide-bound 3-NT residues based on the selective reduction to 3-AT followed by reaction with 4-(amino-methyl)benzenesulfonic acid (ABS) in the presence of K(3)Fe(CN)(6) to form a highly fluorescent 2-phenylbenzoxazole product. Synthetic 3-NT peptide (0.005-1 μM) upon reduction with 10 mM sodium dithionite and tagging with 2 mM ABS and 5 μM K(3)Fe(CN)(6) in 0.1 M Na(2)HPO(4) buffer (pH 9.0) was converted with yields >95% to a single fluorescent product incorporating two ABS molecules per 3-NT residue, with fluorescence excitation and emission maxima at 360 ± 2 and 490 ± 2 nm, respectively, and a quantum yield of 0.77 ± 0.08, based on reverse-phase LC with UV and fluorescence detection, fluorescence spectroscopy and LC-MS-MS analysis. This protocol was successfully tested for quantitative analysis of in vitro Tyr nitration in a model protein, rabbit muscle phosphorylase b, and in a complex mixture of proteins from C2C12 cultured cells exposed to peroxynitrite, with a detection limit of ca. 1 pmol 3-NT by fluorescence spectrometry, and an apparent LOD of 12 and 40 pmol for nitropeptides alone or in the presence of 100 μg digested cell proteins, respectively. LC-MS-MS analysis of ABS tagged peptides revealed that the fluorescent derivatives undergo efficient backbone fragmentations, allowing for sequence-specific characterization of protein Tyr nitration in proteomic studies. Fluorogenic tagging with ABS also can be instrumental for detection and visualization of protein 3-NT in LC and gel-based protein separations.