The peroxiredoxins define an emerging family of peroxidases able to reduce hydrogen peroxide and alkyl hydroperoxides with the use of reducing equivalents derived from thiol-containing donor molecules such as thioredoxin, glutathione, trypanothione and AhpF. Peroxiredoxins have been identified in prokaryotes as well as in eukaryotes. Peroxiredoxin 5 (PRDX5) is a novel type of mammalian thioredoxin peroxidase widely expressed in tissues and located cellularly to mitochondria, peroxisomes and cytosol. Functionally, PRDX5 has been implicated in antioxidant protective mechanisms as well as in signal transduction in cells. We report here the 1.5 Ǻ resolution crystal structure of human PRDX5 in its reduced form. The crystal structure reveals that PRDX5 presents a thioredoxin-like domain. Interestingly, the crystal structure shows also that PRDX5 does not form a dimer like other mammalian members of the peroxiredoxin family. In the reduced form of PRDX5, Cys47 and Cys151 are distant of 13.8 Ǻ although these two cysteine residues are thought to be involved in peroxide reductase activity by forming an intramolecular disulfide intermediate in the oxidized enzyme. These data suggest that the enzyme would necessitate a conformational change to form a disulfide bond between catalytic Cys47 and Cys151 upon oxidation according to proposed peroxide reduction mechanisms. Moreover, the presence of a benzoate ion, a hydroxyl radical scavenger, was noted close to the active-site pocket. The possible role of benzoate in the antioxidant activity of PRDX5 is discussed.

Peroxiredoxins are an ubiquitous family of peroxidases widely distributed among prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Peroxiredoxin 5, which is the last discovered mammalian member, was previously shown to reduce peroxides with the use of reducing equivalents derived from thioredoxin. We report here that human peroxiredoxin 5 is also a peroxynitrite reductase. Analysis of peroxiredoxin 5 mutants, in which each of the cysteine residues was mutated, suggests that the nucleophilic attack on the O-O bond of peroxynitrite is performed by the N-terminal peroxidatic Cys 47 . Moreover, with the use of pulse radiolysis, we show that human peroxiredoxin 5 reduces peroxynitrite with an unequalled high rate constant of (7 % 3) Â 10 7 M À1 s À1 .

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A liquid flow cell was used for an attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) study of conformational changes taking place in the gastric H+/K+-ATPase. Shifting from E1 to E2 form is induced by replacing Na+ by K+ ions. Introducing ions through a flow passing over a protein multilayer film induced the conformational change without cell manipulations. Measurement sensitivity was thereby improved by about one order of magnitude. The detection threshold allowed the possibility to detect a change affecting five amino acids out of the 1324 that compose the H+/K+-ATPase molecule. It appeared that fewer than five amino-acid residues undergo a conformational change upon replacing Na+ by K+ ions in the medium. Evidence that conformational changes occur in an identical system was brought by monitoring the fluorescence of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled H+/K+-ATPase in similar conditions. Our data suggest that essentially the tertiary structure of the protein is modified.