Solution oxygen-17 NMR application for observing a peroxidized cysteine residue in oxidized human SOD1

Abstract

NMR active nuclei, 1H, 13C and 15N, are usually used for determination of protein structure. However, solution 17O-NMR application to proteins is extremely limited although oxygen is an essential element in biomolecules. Proteins are oxidized through cysteine residues by two types of oxidation. One is reversible oxidation such as disulphide bonding (Cys-S-S-Cys) and the other is irreversible oxidation to cysteine sulfinic acid (Cys-SO 2H) and cysteine sulfonic acid (Cys-SO 3H). Copper,Zinc-superoxide dismutase (SOD1) is a key enzyme in the protection of cells from the superoxide anion radical. The SH group at Cys 111 residue in human SOD1 is selectively oxidized to -SO 2H and -SO 3H with atmospheric oxygen, and this oxidized human SOD1 is also suggested to play an important role in the pathophysiology of various neurodegenerative diseases, probably mainly via protein aggregation. Therefore, information on the structural and the dynamics of the oxidized cysteine residue would be crucial for the understanding of protein aggregation mechanism. Although the -SO 3H group on proteins cannot be directly detected by conventional NMR techniques, we successfully performed the site-specific 17O-labeling of Cys 111 in SOD1 using \(^{17}\textit {O}_{2}\) gas and the 17O-NMR analysis for the first time. We observed clear 17O signal derived from a protein molecule and show that 17O-NMR is a sensitive probe for studying the structure and dynamics of the 17O-labeled protein molecule. This novel and unique strategy can have great impact on many research fields in biology and chemistry.