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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 278, Issue 14, 11931-11936, April 4, 2003

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Regiospecific Nitrosation of N-terminal-blocked Tryptophan Derivatives by N₂O₃ at Physiological pH^*

Michael Kirsch^§, Anke Fuchs, and Herbert de Groot

From the Institut für Physiologische Chemie, Universitätsklinikum, Hufelandstrasse 55, D-45122 Essen, Germany

Received for publication, January 9, 2003, and in revised form, January 22, 2003

	ABSTRACT

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

N₂O₃ formed from nitric oxide in the presence of oxygen attacks thiols in proteins to yield S-nitrosothiols, which are believed to play a central role in NO signaling. In the present study we examined the N-nitrosation of N-terminal-blocked (N-blocked) tryptophan derivatives in the presence of N₂O₃ generating systems, such as preformed nitric oxide and nitric oxide donor compounds in the presence of oxygen at pH 7.4. Under these conditions N-nitrosation of N-acetyltryptophan and lysine-tryptophan-lysine, respectively, was proven unequivocally by UV-visible spectroscopy as well as ¹⁵N NMR spectrometry. Competition experiments performed with the known N₂O₃ scavenger morpholine demonstrated that the selected tryptophan derivatives were nitrosated by N₂O₃ with similar rate constants. It is further shown that the addition of ascorbate (vitamin C) induced the release of nitric oxide from N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan as monitored polarographically with a NO electrode. Theoretical considerations strongly suggested that the reactivity of protein-bound tryptophan would be high enough to compete effectively with protein-bound cysteine for N₂O₃. Our data demonstrate conclusively that N₂O₃ nitrosates the secondary amine function (N_indole) at the indole ring of N-blocked tryptophan with high reactivity at physiological pH values.

	INTRODUCTION

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

Nitric oxide (^·NO) is involved in a great variety of physiological and pathophysiological processes, including the regulation of vascular tonus, immune response, and neurotransmission (1). In mammals the basal level of ^·NO (in the aqueous phase) is in the nanomolar range (2). However, the local ^·NO concentrations can be increased substantially in areas with high NO synthase activity and/or in hydrophobic regions (3, 4), thereby facilitating the formation of dinitrogen trioxide (N₂O₃) (Equations 1 (5) and 2 (6)).

(Eq. 1)

(Eq. 2)

Because N₂O₃ is highly effective in nitrosating sulfhydryl groups (7) (Equations 3 (8) and 4 (2)),

(Eq. 3)

(Eq. 4)

the putative formation of S-nitrosothiols is now generally believed to be of high physiological importance in vivo (Ref. 9 and references therein). For instance, S-nitrosothiols can operate as nitric oxide-donating compounds in vitro (Equation 5 (10)), and they are believed to induce ^·NO-like biological activities in vivo, probably by releasing ^·NO (11, 12).

(Eq. 5)

Further, S-nitrosation of thiols is postulated to induce several functional protein modifications in vivo (13-18). In addition to thiols, secondary amines also react rapidly with N₂O₃ (7). Consequently, the question arose whether (protein-bound) tryptophan could be nitrosated at the nitrogen atom of the indole ring at physiological pH 7.4. It has been demonstrated recently that melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) is N-nitrosated by NaNO₂/HCl as well as by ^·NO/O₂ at pH 7.4. However, the reported rate constant for the latter reaction is rather low (k(melatonin + ^·NO) = 0.5 M¹s¹) (19). Keeping the low physiological concentrations of melatonin in mind (e.g. the maximal concentration in human serum is ~75 pg/ml (20)), this reaction therefore should not proceed to a significant extent in vivo. A similar reaction has not been established thus far for tryptophan at pH 7.4. However, there are indications that the secondary amine of tryptophan (N_indole) can be nitrosated when the primary amine function (N_alanine) is N-blocked.¹ Consequently, albumin (3, 21-23) or, more simply, N-acetyltryptophan (24) were N-nitrosated by N₂O₃ generated in situ by HCl/NaNO₂ (Scheme 1). Nitrosamines in general are well known carcinogens (25). Similarly, Venitt et al. (26) observed mutagenic effects of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan in bacteria. On the other side, as protein-bound N-nitrosotryptophan was able to both stimulate vasorelaxation and inhibit platelet aggregation (21), there might be a putative physiological significance of N-nitrosotryptophan derivatives. This idea, however, has not been developed further, probably because thiols are now believed to be the main physiological targets for N₂O₃ in proteins.

View larger version (5K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Scheme 1.

In contrast to this opinion, we demonstrate unequivocally here the N₂O₃-mediated nitrosation of N-blocked tryptophan (N-acetyltryptophan and the tripeptide lysine-tryptophan-lysine) by N₂O₃ at physiological pH 7.4. In addition, competition experiments performed with the common N₂O₃ scavenger morpholine demonstrate that N₂O₃ reacts quickly with N-terminal-blocked tryptophan. Finally, as liberation of ^·NO is evident after reaction of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan with ascorbate, N-nitrosotryptophan is expected to exhibit similar ^·NO-donating capabilities as S-nitrosocysteine.

	MATERIALS AND METHODS

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

Chemicals-- L-Tryptophan, N-acetyltryptophan, melatonin, lysine-tryptophan-lysine, L-cysteine, morpholine, piperazine and ¹⁵N-labeled sodium nitrite were obtained from Sigma. MAMA NONOate and spermine NONOate were purchased from Situs (Düsseldorf, Germany).

Experimental Conditions-- Because nitrosation reactions are sensitive to the presence of metal ions, solutions were exposed to chelating resin (Chelex 100) as described previously (27).

Nitrosation by Preformed ^·NO Gas-- Nitric oxide (^14·NO) or ¹⁵N- labeled nitric oxide (^15·NO) was prepared daily by the addition of glacial acetic acid to an aqueous solution of K₄[Fe(CN)₆] (0.7 M) containing either NaNO₂ or Na¹⁵NO₂ (0.72 M) under oxygen-free conditions. The overall stoichiometry is presented by the equation,

(Eq. 6)

The reliability of this procedure was confirmed by detecting the release of nitric oxide polarographically with a graphite nitric oxide-sensing electrode (World Precision Instruments, Berlin, Germany).

N-blocked derivatives of tryptophan were nitrosated in oxygen-saturated phosphate/triglycine buffer (250/25 mM, pH 8.0) with the above described preformed ^·NO gas by bubbling it gently into the solution through a needle until the pH value had dropped to 7.4.

Nitrosation by NO Donor Compounds-- MAMA NONOate and spermine NONOate were prepared as 100-fold stock solutions in 10 mM NaOH at 4 °C and used immediately. A stock solution of nitrosocysteine was prepared by S-nitrosation of 100 mM cysteine with equimolar amounts of NaNO₂ in acidic solution (pH 2) at 0 °C (24). Nitrosation reactions were performed in 1 ml of potassium phosphate/NaHCO₃/CO₂ buffer (50 mM/25 mM/5%, pH 7.4, 37 °C) in 35-mm dishes.

Nitrosation by NaNO₂ under Acidic Conditions-- Substances were exposed to equimolar concentrations of sodium nitrite in H₂O equilibrated with glacial acetic acid to pH 3.5.

¹⁵N NMR Identification of Nitrosated Products-- Immediately after nitrosation, sample aliquots were supplemented with 10% D₂O and analyzed by ¹⁵N NMR spectrometry. The adducts were identified by 50.67 MHz ¹⁵N NMR spectrometry on a Bruker AVANCE DRX 500 instrument. Chemical shifts () are given in ppm relative to neat nitromethane ( = 0) as the external standard.

Reactivity of N-Acetyltryptophan toward N₂O₃-- Morpholine (0-100 mM) or piperazine (0-20 mM) and L-tryptophan (2 mM) or its derivatives were incubated with 0.5 mM MAMA NONOate in potassium phosphate buffer (50 mM, pH 7.5, 37 °C) for 30 min. The reaction products were analyzed spectrophotometrically at 335 nm (or 346 nm for nitrosomelatonin) with a SPECORD S 100 spectrophotometer from Analytik Jena (Jena, Germany). A similar experiment was carried out with piperazine as the competitor. Control experiments demonstrated that transnitrosation reactions did not proceed at this pH between nitrosomorpholine + N-acetyltryptophan, nitrosopiperazine + N-acetyltryptophan, morpholine + N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan, or piperazine + N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan, in line with observations reported by Meyer et al. (28).

Decay Kinetic Experiments-- The decay kinetics of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan (100 µM) at various temperatures (15-45 °C) were determined in air-tight quartz cuvettes by rapid scan monitoring the UV-visible absorption at _max = 335 nm (₃₃₅ = 6100 M¹cm¹) (24). Between recordings the samples were protected from light. The temperature was maintained at ± 0.1 °C.

	RESULTS

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

Formation of N-Nitrosotryptophan in Phosphate Buffer, pH 7.4-- Evidence exists that under acidic conditions similar to those in the stomach the NaNO₂-dependent nitrosation of human serum albumin, bovine serum albumin, or the dipeptide glycine-tryptophan yields N-nitrosotryptophan (21, 23). The main nitrosating species in this reaction is postulated to be dinitrogen trioxide (N₂O₃) formed from HNO₂ dehydration (7, 29). Provided that this is indeed the case, N₂O₃ formed from ^·NO in the presence of oxygen at pH 7.4 should also nitrosate N-terminal-blocked tryptophan derivatives, like N-acetyltryptophan and peptide-associated tryptophan (lysine-tryptophan-lysine).

To verify the nitrosation of N-blocked tryptophan derivatives by N₂O₃ at pH 7.4, we selected various N₂O₃-generating systems. We employed preformed nitric oxide as well as in situ generation of ^·NO from S-nitrosocysteine and spermine NONOate, respectively. In these systems, N₂O₃ is formed from oxidation of nitric oxide (^·NO autoxidation) according to Equations 1 and 2 (see the Introduction). Because the formation of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan from the reaction of N-acetyltryptophan with NaNO₂ at pH 3.5 has been described in detail (24, 30), we used this reaction as a reference system. In analogy to the data of Bonnett and Holleyhead (24) we recorded the UV-visible spectrum of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan with an absorption maximum at 335 nm (Fig. 1A, trace b). Interestingly, an almost identical UV-visible spectrum was observed when N-acetyltryptophan was allowed to react with preformed nitric oxide in the presence of oxygen at physiological pH 7.4 (Fig. 1A, trace e). This finding indicated very strongly that N₂O₃ can indeed nitrosate the secondary amine of the indole system in tryptophan. Likewise, the UV-visible spectrum of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan was also detected during reaction of N-acetyltryptophan with the above mentioned nitric oxide-donating compounds in the presence of air (Fig. 1A, traces c and d).

View larger version (18K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 1.   UV-visible absorption spectra of N-nitroso-tryptophan residues generated from the reactions of both N-acetyltryptophan and lysine-tryptophan-lysine with various NO sources. A, spectra of N-acetyltryptophan (trace a) and authentic N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan (trace b) in air-saturated potassium phosphate buffer/NaHCO3, at pH 7.4, and spectra observed after reaction of N-acetyltryptophan (1 mM) with spermine NONOate (2 mM) (trace c), S-nitrosocysteine (3.4 mM) (trace d, dilution 1:4) in the same buffer solution, or preformed ·NO gas in oxygenated 250 mM potassium phosphate buffer, pH 8.0, 25 mM triglycine (trace e, dilution 1:10). B, spectrum of lysine-tryptophan-lysine (5 mM) (trace a) in air-saturated potassium phosphate/NaHCO3/CO2 buffer (50 mM/25 mM/5%, pH 7.4, 37 °C); spectrum observed after reaction of lysine-tryptophan-lysine with NaNO2 (5 mM each) at pH 3.5 (trace b); and spectra observed after reaction of lysine-tryptophan-lysine (5 mM) with S-nitrosocysteine (3.4 mM) (trace c, dilution 1:2), spermine NONOate (2 mm) (trace d) in air-saturated potassium phosphate/NaHCO3/CO2 buffer (50 mM/25 mM/5%, pH 7.4, 37 °C), or preformed ·NO gas in oxygenated potassium phosphate/triglycine buffer (250/25 mM, pH 8.0, 37 °C) (trace e, dilution 1:10). In the latter buffer, the pH decreased to 7.4 during the experiment.

Because in vivo N-terminal-blocked tryptophan is present primarily in proteins, the N₂O₃-mediated nitrosation of the nitrogen atom of the indole ring was also investigated for peptide-bound tryptophan by employing lysine-tryptophan-lysine. In full agreement with the experiments performed with N-acetyltryptophan (see above), all applied N₂O₃-generating systems were able to nitrosate peptide-bound tryptophan effectively at the selected pH values (Fig. 1B). In contrast, the nitrosation of L-tryptophan by the N₂O₃-generating systems was much less effective (data not shown), which is in line with data from the literature (28, 30). Conclusively, only N-terminal-blocked tryptophan but not L-tryptophan is a relevant target for N₂O₃ at physiological pH.

Detection of N-Nitrosotryptophan by ¹⁵N NMR Spectrometry-- Because UV-visible absorption spectra cannot provide unambiguous evidence that the secondary amine function of the indole ring was truly nitrosated, we used ¹⁵N NMR spectrometry as a more reliable analytical tool. In 1986, Dorie et al. (31) recorded the ¹⁵N NMR spectrum of ¹⁵N-labeled N-acetyl-[¹⁵N]nitrosotryptophan from the reaction of N-acetyltryptophan with Na¹⁵NO₂ at pH 4. As commonly observed for N-nitroso compounds (32) the ¹⁵N NMR spectrum exhibited two resonances, at 184.6 and 169.6 ppm relative to neat nitromethane, of the Z- and E-conformer of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan, respectively. Fig. 2A shows the ¹⁵N NMR spectrum of preformed (authentic) N-acetyl-¹⁵N-nitrosotryptophan at pH 7.4, exhibiting two resonance lines at 180.8 and 166.3 ppm, respectively. The small shift difference of ~3 ppm compared with the data of Dorie et al. (31) may be explained by differences in the recording conditions, e.g. different pH values as well as improvements of the ¹⁵N NMR spectrometric techniques during the past years. Nevertheless, nitrosation of the nitrogen atom at the indole ring is proven by this characteristic ¹⁵N NMR spectrum. When N-acetyltryptophan was reacted with authentic ¹⁵NO in the presence of oxygen, only the two new ¹⁵N NMR resonances at 180.1 and 165.6 ppm were detected, consistent with the formation of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan (Fig. 2B). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first direct proof that a tryptophan derivative can be nitrosated by N₂O₃ at the nitrogen atom of the indole system at physiological pH.

View larger version (20K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 2.   15N NMR spectra of 15N-labeled N-nitrosotryptophan derivatives. A, 15N-labeled N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan prepared from reaction of N-acetyltryptophan with NaNO2 (20 mM each) in acidified aqueous solution at pH 3.5 (after completion of the reaction, the reaction mixture was adjusted to pH 7.4 by the addition of 1 N NaOH). 15N-Labeled N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan (B) and 15N-labeled lysine-15N-nitrosotryptophan-lysine (C) were produced from the reaction of either 100 mM N-acetyltryptophan or 200 mM lysine-tryptophan-lysine with preformed 15·NO in oxygenated potassium phosphate/triglycine buffer (250 mM/25 mM, pH 8.0, 37 °C). Under the conditions in B and C, the pH decreased to 7.4 during the experiment.

Analogous to N-acetyltryptophan the tripeptide lysine-tryptophan-lysine was nitrosated at pH 7.4 by preformed ¹⁵NO as proven by the ¹⁵N NMR resonance lines at 181.1 and 166.7 ppm, respectively (Fig. 2C).

Reactivity of N-blocked Tryptophan Derivatives Toward N₂O₃-- For a discussion of the putative significance of tryptophan nitrosation in vivo it is necessary to determine the rate constants of the reaction of N-acetyltryptophan or its derivatives with N₂O₃ at pH 7.5. As mentioned above, Blanchard et al. (19) reported that melatonin reacts with ^·NO in the presence of oxygen at pH 7.4 with a second-order rate constant of only 0.5 M¹ s¹. However, these experiments were performed in the presence of 200 mM Hepes buffer, which is known to react with reactive nitrogen/oxygen species to yield both H₂O₂ (33, 34) and a ^·NO-donating compound (35). Therefore we evaluated the rate constants of N-nitrosation of N-blocked tryptophan derivatives with N₂O₃ by a competition method employing morpholine as the N₂O₃ scavenger (2, 36, 37). The reaction of 2 mM N-acetyltryptophan with 0.5 mM MAMA NONOate yielded about 360 µM N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan. Morpholine competitively inhibited the MAMA NONOate-induced nitrosation of N-acetyltryptophan in a nonlinear manner with an IC₅₀ value of 13.4 mM (Fig. 3). The protonated form of morpholine, that is morpholinium, with a pK_a value of 8.23 at 37 °C (38), is not expected to react with N₂O₃ (39). Thus, the fraction of unprotonated morpholine is about 15.7% at pH 7.5. Taking this fraction into account, the true IC₅₀ value is given by 13.4 mM × 0.157 = 2.1 mM. Conclusively, as 2 mM N-acetyltryptophan was used (see above), N₂O₃ reacts at 37 °C with virtually identical rate constant with both N-acetyltryptophan and morpholine. To verify the presumption that only the unprotonated fraction of the secondary amine effectively reacts with N₂O₃, a control experiment was performed with piperazine as a competitive N₂O₃ scavenger. At pH 7.5 about 99% of piperazine (pK_a = 5.55 (7)) exists in the unprotonated form; thus, as expected, piperazine was more effective than morpholine in inhibiting the MAMA NONOate-induced nitrosation of N-acetyltryptophan (Fig. 3). From inspection of Fig. 3 it can be deduced that MAMA NONOate-induced nitrosation of N-acetyltryptophan was half-maximally inhibited at a piperazine concentration of 2.7 mM. The observation that the corrected IC₅₀ value of morpholine is lower than the experimental IC₅₀ value of piperazine (Table I) is in agreement with the report that N₂O₃ reacts faster with morpholine than with piperazine (7). Not unexpectedly, the reactivity of other N-terminal-blocked tryptophan derivatives toward N₂O₃ was found to be similar (Table I). To compare the rate constant of these nitrosation reactions with other nitrosation reactions reported in the literature, one experiment with N-acetyltryptophan was performed at 25 °C and a rate constant of 4.4 × 10⁷ M¹s¹ was obtained. Thus, N-blocked tryptophan reacts rather fast with N₂O₃ (see the Discussion).

View larger version (19K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 3.   Influence of morpholine and piperazine on MAMA NONOate-induced nitrosation of N-acetyltryptophan. MAMA NONOate (0.5 mM) was incubated for 30 min with 2 mM N-acetyltryptophan in potassium phosphate buffer (50 mM, pH 7.5, 37 °C) in the presence of various concentrations of morpholine or piperazine, respectively. N-Acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan formation was monitored at 335 nm. Each value represents the mean ± S.D. of three determinations.

Decomposition of N-Acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan-- In contrast to common, stable nitrosamines, protein-bound N-nitrosotryptophan has been reported to undergo slow decay at pH 2 (23). To quantify this capability at pH 7.4, we analyzed the decomposition of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan by monitoring its absorption at 335 nm. At 37 °C N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan decayed in a first-order manner (Fig. 4A). Similarly, first-order decay kinetics were also observed at other temperatures (15-45 °C, data not shown). From the excellent Arrhenius plot of the rate data (Fig. 4B) an activation barrier of E_a = 13.2 ± 0.1 kcal mol¹ and an A-factor of 1.7 ± 0.3 × 10⁵ s¹ were extracted. This A-factor appears to be extremely low for a simple first-order (homolysis) decomposition. From the Arrhenius parameters the half-life of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan at physiological conditions (T = 37 °C, pH 7.4) can be calculated to 140 min. Thus, the N-nitrosamines of N-blocked tryptophan derivatives are rather long-lived intermediates.

View larger version (13K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 4.   Kinetic data of the first-order rate decay of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan. A, decay kinetic of 100 µM N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan in potassium phosphate buffer (50 mM, pH 7.4, 37 °C). B, Arrhenius plot of the first-order rate constants of decay of 100 µM N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan in the same buffer. Each value represents the mean ± S.D. of three determinations.

Because the half-life of peptide-bound N-nitrosotryptophan was found to be similar to that of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan (data not shown), one may ask whether it would make any sense for physiological functions to nitrosate tryptophan in vivo. Recently, Harohalli et al. (23) reported that N-nitrosotryptophan very slowly releases ^·NO at pH 2, and Blanchard-Fillion et al. (40) observed that nitrosomelatonin spontaneously decays at pH 7.4, thereby releasing nitric oxide at a yield of 71%. In our hands, however, authentic nitrosomelatonin released only negligible amounts of nitric oxide on decomposition in Hepes-free buffer solution (data not shown). Noticeably neither Harohalli et al. (23) nor Blanchard-Fillion et al. (40) directly detected ^·NO, e.g. with a NO electrode.

As nitrosothiols release nitric oxide in the presence of vitamin C (10), we compared the potential of ascorbate to induce ^·NO release from S-nitrosoglutathione versus N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan (Fig. 5). In the absence of copper ions, the release of ^·NO from N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan after the addition of ascorbate was about 5-fold higher than from S-nitrosoglutathione. In contrast, a "simple" N-nitrosamine like N-nitrosomorpholine did not liberate nitric oxide under similar conditions (data not shown). The low ^·NO-releasing efficiency of S-nitrosoglutathione is explained by the rigorous depletion of copper ions in the applied buffer solution. In the presence of 10 µM Cu²⁺, however, S-nitrosoglutathione as well as N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan did release nitric oxide with nearly the same yield in the presence of ascorbate (data not shown). In the absence of vitamin C only negligible amounts of nitric oxide were released from either N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan or S-nitrosoglutathione on decomposition. These results demonstrate unequivocally that N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan has nitric oxide-releasing capabilities similar to those of S-nitrosocysteine.

View larger version (23K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 5.   Time course of ascorbic acid-induced ·NO liberation from N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan and S-nitrosoglutathione. ·NO release from N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan and S-nitrosoglutathione (100 µM each) in potassium phosphate buffer (50 mM, pH 7.4, 37 °C) in the presence of 400 µM ascorbate as monitored electrochemically with the ·NO electrode.

	DISCUSSION

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

The results presented above clearly show that N₂O₃ nitrosates the secondary amine function at the indole ring of N-blocked tryptophan with high reactivity at physiological pH values. It is known that indole and indole derivatives are easily attacked by N₂O₃ under acidic conditions, however, with exclusive C-nitrosation, thus yielding 3-nitroso products (30, 41). Such products were not observed for tryptophan because here the C-3 position is blocked by the alanine residue, rendering nitrosation at position N-1 (N_indole) more feasible. Nitrosation at C-2 is possible only for derivatives carrying powerful electron donors at the C-3 position (30). Our data indicate that N-acetyltryptophan, melatonin, and the tripeptide lysine-tryptophan-lysine are nitrosated directly by N₂O₃ because these nitrosation reactions could be inhibited effectively by the N₂O₃ scavengers morpholine and piperazine, respectively. In contrast, Turjanski et al. (42) reported that melatonin is nitrosated mainly by a combined attack of the radicals ^·NO₂ and ^·NO. It should be noted that such a mechanism has never been proven for ordinary amines and that a variety of side products, i.e. N-nitro, C-nitro, and C-nitroso compounds, had to be produced by an operating radical mechanism. Noticeably, the ¹⁵N NMR data demonstrated that reaction of ¹⁵N₂O₃ with N-blocked tryptophan exclusively yields ¹⁵N-nitrosotryptophan.

Recently, the reaction between albumin and N₂O₃ generated from NaNO₂ at low pH has been monitored by UV spectroscopy. On the basis of these measurements it was assumed that tryptophan would be nitrosated also (21, 23). However, this conclusion has not been generally accepted (22, 43). As there is presently no specific test for N-nitrosotryptophan available and because N-nitrosotryptophan derivatives and S-nitrosocysteine have almost identical UV-visible absorption spectra (_max ~335 (24) and ~340 nm (30), respectively), the efficiency of nitrosation of both tryptophan and cysteine in proteins is hard to verify experimentally by UV-visible spectroscopy. On the other hand, the effectiveness of these reactions can reasonably be estimated on the basis of the experimental rate constants and the concentrations of both amino acids in proteins. At physiological pH values, tryptophan exists practically exclusively in the reactive nonprotonated form. Hence, the rate constant of N₂O₃ with protein-bound tryptophan can be assumed to be k = 4.4 × 10⁷ M¹s¹ (see "Results"). In contrast, thiols are only marginally deprotonated at pH 7.4. From the average pK_a values of ~8.2 of thiolates in proteins (22), it can be deduced that only 13.5% of the cysteine residues are viable targets for N₂O₃. Thus, as the rate constants for reaction of thiolates (RS) with N₂O₃ is about k = 2 × 10⁸ M¹s¹ (2), protein-bound cysteine should react at pH 7.4 with N₂O₃ with a rate constant of k (cysteine + N₂O₃) = 2 × 10⁸ M¹s¹ × 0.135 = 2.7 × 10⁷ M¹s¹. Thus, the rate constant of the reaction of protein-bound tryptophan with N₂O₃ is, somewhat unexpectedly, estimated to be about 63% higher than the rate constant of protein-bound cysteine with N₂O₃. To verify that this conclusion can be extended to the reaction rate, the amounts of both tryptophan and cysteine residues in proteins were verified by searching the RCSB Protein Data Bank (44) for those proteins that are believed to be S-nitrosated (Table II). From the data in Table II it can be deduced that in the selected proteins the total amount of cysteine is higher than the total amount of tryptophan. With regard to the differences in the rate constants (see above), one can now estimate that N₂O₃ reacts primarily (40-90%) with tryptophan. Thus, we hypothesized that protein-bound tryptophan should be preferentially nitrosated under physiological conditions. To verify this prediction, we are currently developing highly sensitive protocols for the detection of both N-nitrosotryptophan and S-nitrosothiols in proteins.

In this paper we have demonstrated additionally that N-nitrosotryptophan has the capability of releasing nitric oxide in the presence of ascorbate. This implies that N-nitrosotryptophan might operate as a nitric oxide carrier, a property that to date has been attributed more or less exclusively to S-nitrosothiols (7, 11, 45, 46). However, as the chemistry of N-nitrosotryptophan derivatives in physiological environment is not very well developed, it is as yet too early to consider N-nitrosotryptophan derivatives as "harmless" compounds in biological systems. It might be assumed that potentially harmful reactive nitrogen species like peroxynitrite (40) or N₂O₃ are deactivated by their reaction with tryptophan residues and that this may them give some antioxidative functions. However, the observation of Venitt et al. (26) that N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan at 5-15 mM induces mutagenicity in bacteria is, in our view, easily explained by its capability of releasing nitric oxide, which is known to induce such effects at unphysiologically high concentrations (47). In order not to be misunderstood, at present harmful effects of N-nitrosotryptophan derivatives cannot be ruled out. It should be remembered that harmful reactions are also known for S-nitrosothiols. For example, it has been reported that S-nitrosothiols react with thiols to yield nitroxyl (48), which generates hydroxyl radicals and/or peroxynitrite in the absence and presence of oxygen, respectively (49).

Because N-nitrosotryptophan derivatives are rather long-lived and yet not "indefinitely" stable compounds (the hydrolysis of N-acetyl-N-nitrosotryptophan is expected to yield the harmless products tryptophan and nitrite (28)), one may speculate that this could further decrease the putative mutagenic potential of N-nitrosotryptophan. On the other hand, the observed half-life (t_1/2 > 2 h) is so long that N-nitrosotryptophan derivatives (N_indoleNO) may participate in physiological processes, e.g. in the transport and release of nitric oxide. In fact, Zhang et al. (21) observed that peptide-bound N-nitrosotryptophan induces vasorelaxation of rabbit aortic rings, a function that is typical for freely diffusing nitric oxide (45). In conclusion, we hypothesize that a putative physiological potential of N-nitrosotryptophan should be more important than its pathophysiological one. This feature remains to be clarified in the near future. In any case, we have identified, in addition to cysteine, a second major target for N₂O₃ in proteins. This fact will strongly influence the general understanding of protein nitrosation.

	ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Dr. H.-G. Korth for a series of clarifying discussions pertaining to the nature of the underlying chemistry and for useful comments on this manuscript. We also thank H. Bandmann for advice on the NMR technique. The present investigation would have been impossible without the technical assistance of E. Heimeshoff, M. Holzhauser, and A. Wensing.

	FOOTNOTES

^* The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

These authors contributed equally to this work.

^§ To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 49-201-723-4107; Fax: 49-201-723-5943, E-mail: michael.kirsch@uni-essen.de.

Published, JBC Papers in Press, January 23, 2003, DOI 10.1074/jbc.M300237200

	ABBREVIATIONS

The abbreviations used are: N-blocked, N-terminal-blocked; MAMA, NONOate, (Z)-1-{N-methyl-N-[6-(N-methylammoniohexyl)amino]}diazen-1-ium-1,2-diolate; spermine NONOate, (Z)-1-{N-(3-aminopropyl)-N-[-4-(3-aminopropylammonio)butyl]-amino}diazen-1-ium-1,2diolate.

	REFERENCES

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