|
|
||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-synuclein requires tyrosines
1 Department of Chemistry, 2 Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and 3 Lineberger Cancer Research Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA
Reprint requests to: Gary J. Pielak, Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; e-mail: gary_pielak{at}unc.edu; fax: (919) 966-3675.
(RECEIVED June 23, 2004; FINAL REVISION June 23, 2004; ACCEPTED August 14, 2004)
| Abstract |
|---|
|
|
|---|
-Synuclein is the main component of the intracellular protein aggregates in neurons of patients with Parkinsons disease. The occurrence of the disease is associated with oxidative damage. Although it is known that peroxidative chemistry leads to the aggregation of
-synuclein in vitro, the specific amino acid types of
-synuclein involved in this type of aggregation have not been identified. We show, using human cytochrome c plus H2O2 as the source oxidative stress, that the tyrosines of
-synuclein are required for aggregation. The studies reveal the chemical basis for a crucial step in the aggregation process.
Keywords: aggregation; Lewy bodies; oxidative stress; Parkinsons disease;
-synuclein; tyrosine
| Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
-synuclein (Spillantini et al. 1997).
-Synuclein became the focus of Parkinsons disease research after the discovery of two rare, familial forms of the disease caused by point mutations in the
-synuclein gene (Polymerpoulos et al. 1997). Although the exact functions of
-synuclein are unknown, two main biochemical activities have been proposed: regulation of dopamine neuro-transmission and regulation of dopaminergic synaptic vesicles.
-Synuclein is natively disordered (Weinreb et al. 1996) and has a random-coil circular dichroism spectrum (Kim 1997), but its
-helical content increases from 3% to 63%-70% on binding lipid membranes (Davidson et al. 1998).
The cause of
-synuclein aggregation to form Lewy bodies is unknown. However, the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been suggested as a central event. Oxidative stress is an intracellular imbalance in the pro-oxidant/antioxidant equilibrium, favoring pro-oxidants (Sies 1991). The main source of intracellular ROS is the mitochondria (Boveris et al. 1972; Boveris and Chance 1973), where ROS are produced during the reduction of oxygen to water. Under conditions of oxidative stress, both ROS and the respiratory chain protein cytochrome c can leak from the mitochondria into the cytoplasm (Shigenaga et al. 1994). It has been suggested that this leakage is facilitated by pores in the mitochondrial membranes formed by
-synuclein (Lashuel et al. 2002; Volles and Lansbury Jr. 2002). Whatever the mechanism, cytochrome c co-localizes with
-synuclein in Lewy bodies (Hashimoto et al. 1999).
All cellular components are vulnerable to oxidative stress. The damage to proteins includes side chain modification and main chain fragmentation. Two biological markers for oxidative damage in proteins are accumulation of carbonyl groups and dityrosine (Berlett and Stadtman 1997). Dityrosine is a useful marker for protein oxidation (Giulivi and Davies 1993; Heinecke et al. 1993; Huggins et al. 1993) and is found in amino acid hydrosylates of brain tissue affected by Parkinsons disease (Pennathur et al. 1999).
There are two proposed mechanisms for dityrosine formation: Fenton chemistry and peroxidase-mediated tyrosyl radical formation. Fenton chemistry, which generates hydroxyl radicals (HO) from simple transition metal plus H2O2, was believed (Stadtman 1993) to play a role in dityrosine formation. However, recent studies (Kato et al. 2001) show that HO is not involved in dityrosine formation, and may even decrease the yield of dityrosine (Atwood et al. 2004). Oxidative cross-linking of proteins by tyrosine residues probably occurs through a peroxidase-like mechanism. The proposed mechanism for the reaction of H2O2 with ferricytochrome c owes a great deal to what is known about the reaction of H2O2 with the heme-containing peroxidase enzymes, especially cytochrome c peroxidase (Erman and Vitello 2002). This enzyme donates two electrons and two protons to H2O2, producing two molecules of water and leaving two free radicals on the enzyme, one heme-based and the other on a buried tryptophan. The final location of the radicals on cytochrome c with reaction with H2O2 is less clear, but spin trap experiments, which indirectly detect free radicals, suggest that the unpaired electrons end up on tyrosines (Barr et al. 1996; Deterding et al. 1998; Chen et al. 2002; Qian et al. 2002). If two adjacent tyrosine radical-containing molecules interact, a dityrosine-linked dimer forms. Highlighting the importance of understanding peroxidative chemistry is the recent observation that cyclooxygenase (a peroxidase family member) plus H2O2 induces aggregation of A
, the protein associated with Alzheimers disease (Nagano et al. 2004).
Hashimoto et al. (1999) were the first to show the aggregation of
-synuclein by cytochrome c and H2O2. They also showed that cytochrome c co-localizes with
-synuclein in intracellular aggregates in neurons from subjects with Parkinsons disease. These results suggest that cytochrome c plays a role in the oxidative stress-induced aggregation of
-synuclein in Parkinsons disease. However, the mechanism by which cytochrome c leads to
-synuclein aggregation, including the types of amino acids involved, is unknown. Barr et al. (1996) and Qian et al. (2002) showed that radicals formed by the reaction of horse cytochrome c and H2O2 are centered on tyrosine residues using electron spin trapping. Deterding et al. (1998) first showed with mass spectrometry and spin trapping studies that a free radical formed on horse cytochrome c under oxidative conditions can be transferred to tyrosine-containing peptides and that tyrosines are required for transfer. Nevertheless, the residue types involved in peroxidative aggregation of
-synuclein remained unknown.
From these data about cytochrome c oxidation and tyrosine we hypothesized that tyrosine residues on
-synuclein are important for the peroxidative aggregation of
-synuclein. The hypothesis was tested by making an
-synuclein variant in which all the tyrosines were changed to phenylalanines and testing the variant under the same conditions used by Hashimoto et al. (1999).
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
-synuclein aggregates in the presence of cytochrome c and H2O2
-synuclein was incubated with cytochrome c in the presence or absence of H2O2. Coomassie Brilliant Blue staining (Fig. 1
-synuclein aggregates to an SDS-stable species in the presence of H2O2 plus recombinant human cytochrome c. The data in lane 2 of both figures show that H2O2 is required for the aggregation of
-synuclein. Comparing the data in Figures 1
-synuclein fails to aggregate in the presence of 1 mM H2O2 alone. To prove that the interaction between cytochrome c and H2O2 is required for
-synuclein aggregation we performed the complete reaction in the presence of cyanide, which binds the heme iron of cytochrome c, blocking the reaction of cytochrome c with H2O2. Aggregation is inhibited by cyanide (data not shown). The results reported here with human cytochrome c and wild-type
-synuclein confirm and extend the results of Hashimoto et al. (1999), who used horse heart cytochrome c.
|
|
-synuclein fails to aggregate in the presence of cytochrome c and H2O2
-synuclein was incubated with recombinant human cytochrome c under the same conditions as the experiments shown in Figure 1
-synuclein does not aggregate in the presence of recombinant human cytochrome c and H2O2 (Fig. 3
-synuclein.
|
| Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
-Synuclein aggregation is associated with several neuro-degenerative disorders, but despite intense investigation, the mechanism of aggregation and the residue types involved are unknown. It is known, however, that
-synuclein forms SDS stable oligomers when exposed to oxidizing agents (Souza et al. 2000). Hashimoto et al. (1999) showed that
-synuclein aggregates in the presence of cytochrome c and H2O2. Cytochrome c forms tyrosyl radicals when exposed to H2O2 (Barr et al. 1996), and these radicals can be transferred to tyrosine residues on other proteins (Deterding et al. 1998). On the basis of these observations we hypothesized that tyrosines are key residues in the aggregation of
-synuclein in the presence of cytochrome c and H2O2. The data in Figures 1
-synuclein aggregation, and the inhibition of the reaction by cyanide shows direct involvement of the heme in peroxidative aggregation of
-synuclein by cytochrome c.
-Synuclein has four tyrosines (at positions 39, 125, 133, and 136). To investigate the role of these tyrosines in the reaction, we converted the four tyrosines in
-synuclein to phenylalanines. To rule out structural changes in the no-tyrosine variant, we analyzed its secondary structure by using circular dichroism spectropolarimetry (data not shown). The no-tyrosine variant has a random coil spectrum, identical to that of wild-type
-synuclein.
As shown in Figure 3
, no-tyrosine
-synuclein remains monomeric in the presence of cytochrome c and H2O2. These results prove that tyrosines are required for the peroxidative aggregation of
-synuclein in the presence of H2O2 and cytochrome c and are consistent with results from studies of cyclooxygenase-induced peroxidative aggregation of A
, a protein associated with Alzheimers disease (Nagano et al. 2004). On the other hand, when Cu(II) and H2O2 are used to produce ROS through the Fenton reaction, tyrosines are not required for the oxidative aggregation of
-synuclein (Norris et al. 2003). This discrepancy points to the importance of the ROS source in the mechanism of aggregation. We have assumed that the aggregates observed in SDS gels are covalently cross-linked. We are currently testing this assumption and determining which of the four tyrosines are responsible for aggregation.
In summary, we have shown that tyrosines in
-synuclein are required for
-synucleins peroxidative aggregation, and that the source of ROS plays a key role in the mechanism of aggregation.
| Materials and methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
-synuclein were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified as described (Morar et al. 2001; Olteanu et al. 2003).
Site-directed mutagenesis
The human
-synuclein variant with all the tyrosines mutated to phenylalanines, no-tyrosine
-synuclein, was made by using the QuikChange Site-Directed Mutagenesis Kit (Stratagene). The conversion was performed in three steps: (Y39F), (Y125F), and (Y133, 136F). The mutagenic oligonucleotides were synthesized at the Nucleic Acid Core Facility in the UNC Lineberger Cancer Center. The nucleotide sequence was confirmed by the UNC Automated Sequencing Facility. The concentration of the variant was determined by using the same absorbance coefficient as for the wild-type protein (5800 M1 cm1 at 276 nm calculated by using ExPASy (http://us.expasy.org). Because the no-tyrosine variant contains neither tyrosine nor tryptophan, the protein concentration was confirmed by SDS-PAGE analysis.
Aggregation assays of cytochrome c and
-synuclein in the presence of H2O2
Aggregation assays were performed as described by Hashimoto et al. (1999). Briefly, 100-µM cytochrome c and 10-µM
-synuclein (the wild-type protein or the no-tyrosine variant) were incubated in a total volume of 100 µL of PBS (100 mM NaCl, 20 mM KH2PO4, 80 mM Na2HPO4 2 H2O at pH 7.4), with or without 1 mM H2O2, at 37°C, for 1 h. The reaction mixture was analyzed by SDS-PAGE, at 200 V, for 45 min, in a 12% gel. Immunoblot analysis was performed as described by Hashimoto et al. (1999). Samples were electrophoresed at 200 V. The gel was blotted onto a nitro-cellulose membrane that had been soaked for 10 min in methanol. The gel was blotted for 1 h in transfer buffer (3.02 g of Tris base, 14.4 g of glycine, 1 L of H2O). The membrane was blocked in 5% (w/v) dried milk in TBST (10 mL 1 M Tris at pH 7.5, 30 mL 5 M NaCl, 500 µL 0.05% Tween 20), at room temperature, for 1 h, followed by incubation with mouse anti-
-synuclein antibody (LB509, dilution 1:1000) (Zymed Laboratories Inc.), for 1 h, at 37°C, in TBST plus 5% (w/v) dried milk. The membrane was then incubated with horseradish peroxidase rabbit antimouse secondary antibody (dilution 1:3000) (Zymed Laboratories Inc.) for 1 h, at room temperature. Protein bands were visualized by using the ECL Western blot detection kit (Amersham).
| Footnotes |
|---|
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
. Biochemistry 43: 560568.[CrossRef][Medline]
Barr, D.P., Gunther, M.R., Deterding, L.J., Tomer, K.B., and Mason, R.P. 1996. ESR spin-trapping of a protein-derived tyrosyl radical from the reaction of cytochrome c with hydrogen peroxide. J. Biol. Chem. 271: 1549815503.
Berlett, B.S. and Stadtman, E.R. 1997. Protein oxidation in aging, disease, and oxidative stress. J. Biol. Chem. 272: 2031320316.
Boveris, A. and Chance, B. 1973. The mitochondrial generation of hydrogen peroxide. General properties and effect of hyperbaric oxygen. Biochem. J. 134: 707716.[Medline]
Boveris, A., Oshino, N., and Chance, B. 1972. The cellular production of hydrogen peroxide. Biochem. J. 128: 617630.[Medline]
Chen, Y.R., Deterding, L.J., Sturgeon, B.E., Tomer, K.B., and Mason, R.P. 2002. Protein oxidation of cytochrome c by reactive halogen species enhances its peroxidase activity. J. Biol. Chem. 277: 2978129791.
Davidson, W.S., Jonas, A., Clayton, D.F., and George, J.M. 1998. Stabilization of
-synuclein secondary structure upon binding to synthetic membranes. J. Biol. Chem. 273: 94439449.
Deterding, L.J., Barr, D.P., Mason, R.P., and Tomer, K.B. 1998. Characterization of cytochrome c free radical reactions with peptides by mass spectrometry. J. Biol. Chem. 273: 1286312869.
Erman, J.E. and Vitello, L.B. 2002. Yeast cytochrome c peroxidase: Mechanistic studies via protein engineering. Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 1597: 193220.[CrossRef][Medline]
Giulivi, C. and Davies, K.J. 1993. Dityrosine and tyrosine oxidation products are endogenous markers for the selective proteolysis of oxidatively modified red blood cell hemoglobin by (the 19 S) proteasome. J. Biol. Chem. 268: 87528759.
Hashimoto, M., Takeda, A., Hsu, L.J., Takenouchi, T., and Masliah, E. 1999. Role of cytochrome c as a stimulator of
-synuclein aggregation in Lewy body disease. J. Biol. Chem. 274: 2884928852.
Heinecke, J.W., Li, W., Daehnke 3rd, H.L., and Goldstein, J.A. 1993. Dityrosine, a specific marker of oxidation, is synthesized by the myeloperoxidase-hydrogen peroxide system of human neutrophils and macrophages. J. Biol. Chem. 268: 40694077.
Holdorff, B. 2002. Friedrich Heinrich Lewy (18851950) and his work. J. Hist. Neurosci. 11: 1928.[CrossRef][Medline]
Huggins, T.G., Wells-Knecht, M.C., Detorie, N.A., Baynes, J.W., and Thorpe, S.R. 1993. Formation of o-tyrosine and dityrosine in proteins during radiolytic and metal-catalyzed oxidation. J. Biol. Chem. 268: 1234112347.
Kato, Y., Kitamoto, N., Kawai, Y., and Osawa, T. 2001. The hydrogen peroxide/copper ion system, but not other metal-catalyzed oxidation systems, produces protein-bound dityrosine. Free Radic. Biol. Med. 31: 624632.[CrossRef][Medline]
Kim, J. 1997. Evidence that the precursor protein of non-A
component of Alzheimers disease amyloid (NACP) has an extended structure primarily composed of random-coil. Mol. Cell. 7: 7883.
Lang, A.E. and Lozano, A.M. 1998. Parkinsons disease. Second of two parts. N. Engl. J. Med. 339: 11301143.
Lashuel, H.A., Hartley, D., Petre, B.M., Walz, T., and Lansbury Jr., P.T. 2002. Amyloid pores from pathogenic mutations. Nature 418: 291.
Morar, A.S., Olteanu, A., Young, G.B., and Pielak, G.J. 2001. Solvent-induced collapse of
-synuclein and acid-denatured cytochrome c. Protein. Sci. 10: 21952199.
Nagano, S., Huang, X., Moir, R.D., Payton, S.M., Tanzi, R.E., and Bush, A.I. 2004. Peroxidase activity of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) cross-links
-amyloid (A
) and generates A
-COX-2 hetero-oligomers that are increased in Alzheimers disease. J. Biol. Chem. 279: 1467314678.
Norris, E.H., Giasson, B.I., Ischiropoulos, H., and Lee, V.M. 2003. Effects of oxidative and nitrative challenges on
-synuclein fibrillogenesis involve distinct mechanisms of protein modifications. J. Biol. Chem. 278: 2723027240.
Olteanu, A., Patel, C.N., Dedmon, M.M., Kennedy, S., Linhoff, M.W., Minder, C.M., Potts, P.R., Deshmukh, M., and Pielak, G.J. 2003. Stability and apoptotic activity of recombinant human cytochrome c. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 312: 733740.[CrossRef][Medline]
Pennathur, S., Jackson-Lewis, V., Przedborski, S., Heinecke, J.W., Polacino, P.S., Stallard, V., Klaniecki, J.E., Montefiori, D.C., Langlois, A.J., Richardson, B.A., et al. 1999. Mass spectrometric quantification of 3-nitrotyrosine, orthotyrosine, and o,o'-dityrosine in brain tissue of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3, 6-tetrahydropyridine-treated mice, a model of oxidative stress in Parkinsons disease. J. Biol. Chem. 274: 3462134628.
Polymerpoulos, M.H., Lavedan, C., Leroy, E., Ide, S.E., Dehejia, A., Dutra, A., Pike, B., Root, H., Rubenstein, J., Boyer, R., et al. 1997. Mutations in the
-synuclein gene identified in families with Parkinsons disease. Science 276: 20452047.
Qian, S.Y., Chen, Y.R., Deterding, L.J., Fann, Y.C., Chignell, C.F., Tomer, K.B., Mason, R.P., Barr, D.P., and Gunther, M.R. 2002. Identification of protein-derived tyrosyl radical in the reaction of cytochrome c and hydrogen peroxide: Characterization by ESR spin-trapping, HPLC and MS ESR spin-trapping of a protein-derived tyrosyl radical from the reaction of cytochrome c with hydrogen peroxide. Biochem. J. 363: 281288.[CrossRef][Medline]
Shigenaga, M.K., Hagen, T.M., and Ames, B.N. 1994. Oxidative damage and mitochondrial decay in aging. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 91: 1077110778.
Sies, H. 1991. Oxidative stress: From basic research to clinical application. Am. J. Med. 91: 31S38S.[Medline]
Souza, J.M., Giasson, B.I., Chen, Q., Lee, V.M., and Ischiropoulos, H. 2000. Dityrosine cross-linking promotes formation of stable
-synuclein polymers. Implication of nitrative and oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative synucleinopathies. J. Biol. Chem. 275: 1834418349.
Spillantini, M.G., Schmidt, M.L., Lee, V.M.-Y., Trojanowski, J.Q., Jakes, R., and Goedert, M. 1997.
Synuclein in Lewy bodies. Nature 388: 839840.[CrossRef][Medline]
Stadtman, E.R. 1993. Oxidation of free amino acids and amino acid residues in proteins by radiolysis and by metal-catalyzed reactions. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 62: 797821.[CrossRef][Medline]
Volles, M.J., and Lansbury Jr., P.T. 2002. Vesicle permeabilization by proto-fibrillar
-synuclein is sensitive to Parkinsons disease-linked mutations and occurs by a pore-like mechanism. Biochemistry 41: 45954602.[CrossRef][Medline]
Weinreb, P.H., Zhen, W., Poon, A.W., Conway, K.A., and Lansbury Jr., P.T. 1996. NACP, a protein implicated in Alzheimers disease and learning, is natively unfolded. Biochemistry 35: 1370913715.[CrossRef][Medline]
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Technorati What's this?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |