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The focus of this study was on the assessment of technology that might be of clinical utility in identification, quantification, characterization of carbonylation in human plasma proteins. Carbonylation is widely associated with oxidative stress diseases. Breast cancer patient samples were chosen as a stress positive case based on the fact that oxidative stress has been reported to be elevated in this disease. Measurements of 8-isoprostane in plasma confirmed that breast cancer patients in this study were indeed experiencing significant oxidative stress. Carbonyl groups in proteins from freshly drawn blood were derivatized with biotin hydrazide after which the samples were dialyzed and the biotinylated proteins subsequently selected, digested and labeled with iTRAQ™ heavy isotope coding reagent(s). Four hundred sixty proteins were identified and quantified, 95 of which changed 1.5 fold or more in concentration. Beyond confirming the utility of the analytical method, association of protein carbonylation was examined as well. Nearly one fourth of the selected proteins were of cytoplasmic, nuclear, or membrane origin. Analysis of the data by unbiased knowledge assembly methods indicated the most likely disease associated with the proteins was breast neoplasm. Pathway analysis showed the proteins which changed in carbonylation were strongly associated with Brca1, the breast cancer type-1 susceptibility protein. Pathway analysis indicated the major molecular functions of these proteins are defense, immunity and nucleic acid binding.

Excessive oxidative stress leaves a protein carbonylation fingerprint in biological systems. Carbonylation is an irreversible post-translational modification (PTM) that often leads to the loss of protein function and can be a component of multiple diseases. Protein carbonyl groups can be generated directly (by amino acids oxidation and the alpha-amidation pathway) or indirectly by forming adducts with lipid peroxidation products or glycation and advanced glycation end-products. Studies of oxidative stress are complicated by the low concentration of oxidation products and a wide array of routes by which proteins are carbonylated. The development of new selection and enrichment techniques coupled with advances in mass spectrometry are allowing the identification of hundreds of new carbonylated protein products from a broad range of proteins located at many sites in biological systems. The focus of this review is on the use of proteomics tools and methods to identify oxidized proteins along with specific sites of oxidative damage and the consequences of protein oxidation.

This study reports the first proteomic-based identification and characterization of oxidized proteins in human plasma. The study was conducted by isolating carbonylated proteins from the plasma of male subjects (age 32-36) with avidin affinity chromatography subsequent to biotinylation of carbonyl groups with biotin hydrazide and sodium cyanoborohydride reduction of the resulting Schiff's bases. Avidin selected proteins were digested with trypsin, and the peptide fragments were separated by C18 reversed phase chromatography and identified and characterized by both electrospray ionization and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry. Approximately 0.2% of the total protein in plasma was selected with this method. Sixty-five high, medium, and low abundance proteins were identified, the majority appearing in all subjects. An interesting feature of the oxidized proteins isolated was that in addition to carbonylation they often bore other types of oxidative modification. Twenty-four oxidative modifications were mapped in 14 proteins. Fifteen carbonylation sites carried on 7 proteins were detected. Methionine oxidation was the most frequent single type of oxidative modification followed by tryptophan oxidation. Apolipoprotein B-100 had 20 oxidative modifications, the largest number for any protein observed in this study. Among the organs contributing oxidized proteins to plasma, kidney, liver, and soft tissues were the most frequent donors. One of the more important outcomes of this work was that mass spectral analysis allowed differentiation between different biological mechanisms of oxidation in individual proteins. For the first time, oxidation products arising from direct ROS oxidation of amino acid side chains in proteins, formation of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) adducts, and formation of adducts with lipid peroxidation products were simultaneously recognized and assigned to specific sites in proteins.

Pathological levels of oxidative stress (OS) have been implicated in a broad spectrum of diseases. Carbonylation is an irreversible PTM that is considered as a universal indicator of OS. The development of new enrichment techniques coupled with the introduction of highly sensitive mass spectrometers has allowed the identification of carbonylated proteins in biological systems. In this study, Deng et al. (Proteomics 2015, 15, 148-159) utilized one of these methods to isolate and identify carbonylated proteins that are involved in tetracycline-induced steatosis. They identified 26 proteins that are targets of OS and most of them were located in the mitochondria. A key carbonylated protein that was identified is long chain specific acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, which has a major role in the β-oxidation of fatty acids. The researchers concluded that tetracycline-induced steatosis is a two-step process that involves lipid overload followed by OS.

There is potential that the pathological effects of oxidative stress (OS) associated diseases such as diabetes could be ameliorated with antioxidants, but this will require a clearer understanding of the pathway(s) by which proteins are damaged by OS. This study reports the development and use of methods that assess the efficacy of dietary antioxidant supplementation at a mechanistic level. Data reported here evaluate the impact of green tea supplementation on oxidative stress induced post-translational modifications (OSi-PTMs) in plasma proteins of Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats. The mechanism of antioxidant protection was examined through both the type and amount of OSi-PTMs using mass spectrometry based identification and quantification. Carbonylated proteins in freshly drawn blood samples were derivatized with biotin hydrazide. Proteins thus biotinylated were selected from plasma samples of green tea fed diabetic rats and control animals by avidin affinity chromatography, further fractionated by reversed phase chromatography (RPC); fractions from the RPC column were tryptic digested, and the tryptic digest was fractionated by RPC before being identified by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Relative quantification of peptides bearing carbonylation sites was achieved for the first time by RPC-MS/MS using selective reaction monitoring (SRM). Seventeen carbonylated peptides were detected and quantified in both control and treated plasma. The relative concentration of eight was dramatically different between control and green tea treated animals. Seven of the OSi-PTM bearing peptides had dropped dramatically in concentration with treatment while one increased, indicating differential regulation of carbonylation by antioxidants. Green tea antioxidants were found to reduce carbonylation of proteins by lipid peroxidation end products most, followed by advanced glycation end products to a slightly lower extent. Direct oxidation of proteins by reactive oxygen species (ROS) was protected the least by green tea.