Protein thiol oxidation and modification by nitric oxide and glutathione are emerging as common mechanisms to regulate protein function and to modify protein structure. Also, thiol oxidation is a probable outcome of cellular oxidative stress and is linked to degenerative disease progression. We assessed the effect of the oxidants hypochlorous acid and chloramines on the cytoskeletal protein tubulin. Total cysteine oxidation by the oxidants was monitored by labeling tubulin with the thiol-selective reagent, 5-iodoacetamidofluorescein, by reaction with Ellman’s reagent, 5,5′dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid), and by detecting interchain tubulin disulfides by Western blot under nonreducing conditions. Whereas HOCl induced both cysteine and methionine oxidation of tubulin, chloramines were predominantly cysteine oxidants. Cysteine oxidation of tubulin, rather than methionine oxidation, was associated with loss of microtubule polymerization activity and treatment of oxidized tubulin with disulfide reducing agents restored a considerable portion of the polymerization activity that was lost after oxidation. By comparing the reactivity of hypochlorous acid and chloramines with the previously characterized oxidants, peroxynitrite and the nitroxyl donor, Angeli’s salt, we have identified tubulin thiol oxidation, not methionine oxidation or tyrosine nitration, as a common outcome responsible for decreased polymerization activity.

Thiol oxidation is a probable outcome of cellular oxidative stress and is linked to degenerative disease progression. In addition, protein thiol redox reactions are increasingly identified as a mechanism to regulate protein structure and function. We assessed the effect of hypothiocyanous acid on the cytoskeletal protein tubulin. Total cysteine oxidation by hypothiocyanous and hypochlorous acids was monitored by labeling tubulin with 5-iodoacetamidofluorescein and by detecting higher molecular weight inter-chain tubulin disulfides by Western blot under nonreducing conditions. Hypothiocyanous acid induced nearly stoichiometric oxidation of tubulin cysteines (1.9 mol cysteine/mol oxidant) and no methionine oxidation was observed. Because disulfide reducing agents restored all the polymerization activity that was lost due to oxidant treatment, we conclude that cysteine oxidation of tubulin inhibits microtubule polymerization. Hypothiocyanous acid oxidation of tubulin cysteines was markedly decreased in the presence of 4% glycerol, a component of the tubulin purification buffer. Due to its instability and buffer- and pH-dependent reactivity, hypothiocyanous acid studies require careful consideration of reaction conditions.

While thiol redox reactions are a common mechanism to regulate protein structure and function, protein disulfide bond formation is a marker of oxidative stress that has been linked to neurodegeneration. Both tubulin and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) contain multiple cysteines that have been identified as targets for oxidation to disulfides, S-nitrosation and S-glutathionylation. We show that GAPDH is one of three prominent brain microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs), in addition to MAP-2 and tau, with reactive cysteines. We detected a threefold to fourfold increase in tubulin cysteine oxidation by hydrogen peroxide in the presence of rabbit muscle GAPDH by 5-iodoacetamidofluorescein labeling and by Western blot detection of higher molecular weight inter-chain tubulin disulfides. In thiol/disulfide exchange experiments, tubulin restored ∼50% of oxidized GAPDH cysteines and the equilibrium favored reduced GAPDH. Further, we report that oxidized GAPDH is repaired by the thioredoxin reductase system (TRS). Restoration of GAPDH activity after reduction by both tubulin and the TRS was time-dependent suggesting conformational changes near the active site cysteine149. The addition of brain MAPs to oxidized tubulin reduced tubulin disulfides and labeling of MAP-2 and of GAPDH decreased. Because the extent of tubulin repair of oxidized GAPDH was dependent on buffer strength, we conclude that electrostatics influence thiol/disulfide exchange between the two proteins. The novel interactions presented herein may protect GAPDH from inhibition under oxidative stress conditions.