Organic hydroperoxides are of great utility in probing the reaction mechanism and the toxicological consequences of lipid peroxidation. In the present study, ESR spin-trapping was employed to investigate the peroxidation of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) with t-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BuOOH) and cumene hydroperoxide (CumOOH). The spin trap 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline N-oxide (DMPO) was used to detect the radical species formed from the reaction of CcO with t-BuOOH. The presence of t-BuOOH-derived alkoxyl radical (t-BuO˙) as the primary radical indicates reductive scission of the O—O bond by CcO. The ESR signal of DMPO/˙Ot-Bu can be partially abolished by cyanide, implying that the reductive cleavage involved the haem a3CuB binuclear site of CcO. A nitroso spin trap, 2-methyl-2-nitrosopropane (MNP), was used to detect and identify radical species from the reaction of CcO with CumOOH. In addition to the t-BuOOH-derived methyl, hydroxylmethyl and tertiary carbon-centred radicals, a protein-derived radical was detected. The intensity of the ESR signal from the protein radical increased with the CumOOH concentration at low CumOOH/CcO ratios, with maximal intensity at a ratio of 100mol of CumOOH/mol of CcO. The immobilized protein radical adduct of MNP was stable and persistent after dialysis; it was also resistant to proteolytic digestion, suggesting that it was formed in the transmembrane region, a region that is not accessible to proteases. Its signal was greatly enhanced when CcO cysteine residues were chemically modified by N-ethylmaleimide, when the tryptophan residues in CcO were oxidized by N-bromosuccimide, and when tyrosine residues on the surface of CcO were iodinated, showing that a radical equilibrium was established among the cysteine, tryptophan and tyrosine residues of the protein-centred radical. Pre-treatment of CcO with cyanide prevented detectable MNP adduct formation, confirming that the haem a3-CuB binuclear centre was the initial reaction site. When the CcO was pre-treated with 10mM (100 equivalents) of CumOOH, the enzyme activity decreased by more than 20%. This inhibition was persistent after dialysis, suggesting that the detected protein-centred radical was, in part, involved in the irreversible inactivation by CumOOH. Visible spectroscopic analysis revealed that the haem a of CcO was not affected during the reaction. However, the addition of pyridine to the reaction mixture under alkaline conditions resulted in the destruction of the haem centre of CcO, suggesting that its protein matrix rather than its haem a is the target of oxidative damage by the organic hydroperoxide.
Identification of protein-derived tyrosyl radical in the reaction of cytochrome c and hydrogen peroxide: characterization by ESR spin-trapping, HPLC and MS