Identification of protein-derived tyrosyl radical in the reaction of cytochrome c and hydrogen peroxide:: characterization by ESR spin-trapping, HPLC and MS

The reaction of cytochrome e and H2O2 is known to form a protein-centred radical that can be detected with the spin trap 2-methyl-2-nitrosopropane (MNP). To characterize the MNP/tyrosyl adduct structure that had previously been determined incorrectly [Barr, Gunther, Deterding, Tomer and Mason (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 15498-15503], we eliminated unreasonable structure models by ESR studies with a series of C-13-labelled tyrosines, and photochemically synthesized an authentic MNP/tyrosyl adduct that has its trapping site on the C-3 position of the tyrosine phenyl ring. The observation of the identical ESR spectra for this radical adduct from the UV irradiation of 3-iodotyrosine and the adduct from the cytochrome c reaction demonstrated that the radical trapping site of MNP/tyrosyl is located on the equivalent C-3/C-5 positions instead of the C-1 position, as was proposed by Barr et al. In an on-line HPLC/ESR system, an identical retention time (17.7 min) was observed for the ESR-active HPLC peak of the MNP/tyrosyl adduct from the following three reactions: (i) the tyrosine oxidation via horseradish peroxidase/H2O2; (ii) UV irradiation of 3-iodo-tyrosine and (iii) the reaction of cytochrome c with H2O2. This result demonstrated that the radical adducts of all three reactions are most probably the same. The mass spectrometric analysis of the HPLC fractions from reactions (i) and (ii) showed an ion at m/z 267 attributed to the MNP/tyrosyl adduct. We conclude that the cytochrome c-derived tyrosyl radical was trapped by MNP, leading to a persistent radical adduct at the C-3/C-5 positions of the tyrosine phenyl ring.