Protein oxidation in aging brain.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R A Floyd.
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Reactive oxygen species are generated by a variety of cellular processes. These endogenously generated, reactive intermediates produce a multiplicity of DNA alterations and mutations and have been implicated in the pathogenesis of several human diseases. We report here that treatment of single-stranded M13mp2 bacteriophage DNA with methylene blue and white light generates increased levels of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine and that mutagenesis is both highly specific and dependent on the SOS response. Lesions produced block the progression of DNA synthesis one base preceding template guanines. In SOS-induced Escherichia coli, 97% of all methylene blue-induced mutations in the lacZ alpha gene of M13mp2 DNA are single-base substitutions opposite template guanines. The most frequent mutations are G----C transversions. The G----T transversions expected from the presence of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine in the template strand occur, but at a lower frequency. Sequence data together with SOS dependency and the presence of replication blockage demonstrate that while 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine may serve as an important marker to monitor oxygen-induced DNA damage in humans, it does not account for either the observed blockage to replication or the mutagenesis by methylene blue plus light in SOS-induced E. coli. Instead, an as yet unidentified lesion generated by active oxygen species is a more potent mutagenic event.
Iron mediates damage to proteins and DNA. The mechanisms of damage not only involve iron but also oxygen free radical intermediates. Oxidative damage to DNA causes not only strand breaks, but also formation of specific base adducts, such as 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine. Oxidative damage also inactivates certain enzymes such as glutamine synthetase. Novel methods of assessing oxidative damage to tissue, including quantitation of salicylate hydroxylation as an index of hydroxyl free radical flux as well as specific lesions to proteins and DNA, have yielded results that clearly show that ischemia/reperfusion injury to mongolian gerbil brain involves oxidatively damaging events. Aging in gerbil as well as human brain is also associated with increased oxidative damage. Recent novel observations have shown that the spin-trapping agent phenyl alpha-tert-butylnitrone (PBN) offers protection in gerbil brain during ischemia/reperfusion injury. We also show that oxidative damage to brain during aging is decreased by chronic administration of PBN. The mechanism of action of PBN may be related to its trapping of specific free radicals, which triggers a cascade of oxidative events that eventually lead to tissue injury.
During aging a number of enzymes accumulate as catalytically inactive or less active forms. The age-related changes in catalytic activity are due in part to reactions of the protein with "active" oxygen species such as ozone, singlet oxygen, or with oxygen free radicals as are produced during exposure to ionizing radiation or to metal ion catalyzed oxidation (MCO) systems. The levels of oxidized proteins in cultured human fibroblasts from individuals of various ages and in liver and brain extracts of rats of different ages increase progressively with age, and in old rats can represent 30-50% of the total cellular protein. The age-related increase in oxidized protein in rat liver and brain tissue is accompanied by a loss of glutamine synthetase (GS) and glucose-6-P dehydrogenase (G-6-PDH) activities, and to a decrease in the level of cytosolic neutral protease activity which is responsible for the degradation of oxidized (denatured) protein. Of particular significance are the results of experiments showing that similar age-related changes occur in the gerbil brain and that these changes are accompanied by a loss of short-term memory as measured by the radial arm maze technique. Chronic treatment (intraperitoneal injections) of old animals with the free radical spin-trap reagent, N-tert-butyl-alpha-phenylnitrone (PBN) resulted in normalization of the several biochemical parameters to those characteristic of the young animals; coincidentally, the short-term memory index was restored to the young animal values. These results provide the first evidence that there is likely a linkage between the age-dependent accumulation of oxidized enzymes and the loss of physiological function.
Membrane lipid peroxidation processes yield products that may react with DNA to cause oxidative modifications. We have investigated this possibility and have found that calf thymus DNA exposed to autooxidized lipids causes the formation of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG). 8-OH-dG formation in DNA was measured using high-pressure liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Methyl linolenate oxidized for different lengths of time was exposed to DNA. The amount of 8-OH-dG formed in DNA was proportional to the amount of lipid peroxidation as measured by the thiobarbituric reactive substances present. The formation of 8-OH-dG in DNA by autooxidized methyl linolenate was dependent on the presence of the transition metal ions Cu or Fe and was inhibited by various scavengers, including superoxide dismutase and catalase. This implicates the involvement of oxygen free radicals in the process. Liposomes formed from phosphatidylcholine (82%) and methyl arachidonate (18%) were peroxidized for different lengths of time and then exposed to DNA. 8-OH-dG was formed in DNA by exposure to Cu(II) and peroxidized liposomes. Under these conditions, Fe(III) was slightly less effective than Cu(II) in mediating 8-OH-dG formation. These observations clearly show that 8-OH-dG formation in DNA may result from processes that may occur during intracellular lipid peroxidation.
The concentration of glutamate as well as the hydroxylation of salicylate, as an index of hydroxyl free radical formation, has been determined in the abdominal aorta and heart of gerbils undergoing an ischemia/reperfusion insult (IRI) and compared to control sham-operated gerbils. The amount of glutamate and hydroxylated salicylate (dihydroxybenzoic acid, DHBA) was significantly increased in both the aorta and heart of IRI-treated gerbils as compared to the aorta and in the heart of sham-operated gerbils. Vitamin E (90 mg/kg at 24 and 1 h prior to an IRI) pretreatment prevented the increase of both glutamate and DHBA in both the aorta and heart of IRI-lesioned gerbils. The results suggest that increases in glutamate, perhaps due to the decreased activities of glutamine synthetase, are correlated with increased oxygen free radical formation during an ischemia/reperfusion insult to the heart.
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The relationship between Alzheimer disease (AD) and aging is not currently known. In this study, postmortem frontal- and occipital-pole brain samples were obtained from 16 subjects with AD, 8 age-matched controls, and 5 young controls. These samples were analyzed both for protein oxidation products (carbonyl) and the activities of two enzymes vulnerable to mixed-function oxidation, glutamine synthetase and creatine kinase. Glutamine synthetase is more sensitive to mixed-function oxidation than creatine kinase. Carbonyl content rises exponentially with age, at double the rate in the frontal pole compared with the occipital pole. Compared with young controls, both aged groups (AD and age-matched controls) have increased carbonyl content and decreased glutamine synthetase and creatine kinase activities, which are more marked in the frontal than occipital pole in all instances. We conclude that protein oxidation products accumulate in the brain and that oxidation-vulnerable enzyme activities decrease with aging in the same regional pattern (frontal more affected than occipital). However, only glutamine synthetase activity distinguishes AD from age-matched controls: Because glutamine synthetase activity is differentially reduced in the frontal pole in AD, we suggest that AD may represent a specific brain vulnerability to age-related oxidation.
The generation of free radicals by microsome-mediated redox cycling between catechol estrogens or diethylstilbestrol and their corresponding quinones has previously been demonstrated in vitro. However, the reaction of free radicals with DNA has not yet been detected in animals treated with estrogen and is the subject of this investigation. The reaction of guanine bases of DNA with hydroxyl radicals to form 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine has been used as a monitor of free radical generation in kidney and liver of Syrian hamsters, a species prone to estrogen-induced carcinogenesis. Prior to in vivo measurements, the in vitro hydroxylation of guanine bases of DNA under conditions of redox cycling of estrogen was investigated. In incubations of DNA or deoxyguanosine with hamster kidney microsomes, NADPH, and diethylstilbestrol 4',4"-quinone, the hydroxylation of guanine bases of free deoxyguanosine or of DNA was 50 to 100% higher than in controls. When incubations were carried out in the presence of iron(III) chloride, the hydroxylation of guanine bases was 2.5- or 10-fold higher than control values. There was a 65% increase from control values in levels of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine in liver DNA of hamsters treated with 20 mg/kg/day diethylstilbestrol for 3 days and 100 mg/kg on the 4th day. In hamsters treated chronically with diethylstilbestrol implants for 15 days, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine levels more than doubled from control values in kidney but not liver DNA. Treatment of hamsters with estradiol for various time periods did not induce any changes in levels of hydroxylated guanine in either kidney or liver. It was concluded that in vitro and in vivo redox cycling of diethylstilbestrol hydroxylated guanine bases in DNA.
Oxygen free radicals and oxidative events have been implicated as playing a role in bringing about the changes in cellular function that occur during aging. Brain readily undergoes oxidative damage, so it is important to determine if aging-induced changes in brain may be associated with oxidative events. Previously we demonstrated that brain damage caused by an ischemia/reperfusion insult involved oxidative events. In addition, pretreatment with the spin-trapping compound N-tert-butyl-alpha-phenylnitrone (PBN) diminished the increase in oxidized protein and the loss of glutamine synthetase (GS) activity that accompanied ischemia/reperfusion injury in brain. We report here that aged gerbils had a significantly higher level of oxidized protein as assessed by carbonyl residues and decreased GS and neutral protease activities as compared to young adult gerbils. We also found that chronic treatment with the spin-trapping compound PBN caused a decrease in the level of oxidized protein and an increase in both GS and neutral protease activity in aged Mongolian gerbil brain. In contrast to aged gerbils, PBN treatment of young adult gerbils had no significant effect on brain oxidized protein content or GS activity. Male gerbils, young adults (3 months of age) and retired breeders (15-18 months of age), were treated with PBN for 14 days with twice daily dosages of 32 mg/kg. If PBN administration was ceased after 2 weeks, the significantly decreased level of oxidized protein and increased GS and neutral protease activities in old gerbils changed in a monotonic fashion back to the levels observed in aged gerbils prior to PBN administration. We also report that old gerbils make more errors than young animals and that older gerbils treated with PBN made fewer errors in a radial arm maze test for temporal and spatial memory than the untreated aged controls. These data can be interpreted to indicate that oxidation of cellular proteins may be a critical determinant of brain function. Moreover, it also implies that there is an age-related increase in vulnerability of tissue to oxidation that can be modified by free radical trapping compounds.
Brain is extremely susceptible to oxidative damage. Utilizing a series of novel approaches, we have demonstrated that oxidative damage occurs during an ischemia/reperfusion insult (IRI) to brain. Thus, we have demonstrated that an IRI to Mongolian gerbil brain results in: (1) an enhanced rate of salicylate hydroxylation, implicating an increased flux of hydroxyl free radicals; (2) an enhanced flux of free radicals as determined by spin-trapping; (3) an enhanced level of endogenous protein oxidation; (4) a decrease in glutamine synthetase (GS) activity, an enzyme very sensitive to oxidative damage; and (5) demonstration of protection from an IRI by administering the spin-trapping agent alpha-phenyl-tert-butyl nitrone (PBN). The novel observation that PBN offers protection from the lethality brought on by a brain IRI appears to be clearly linked to the ability of the administered spin-trap to inhibit oxidative damage as evidenced by the decreased amount of brain protein oxidation and the prevention of an IRI-mediated loss of GS activity in treated animals. Aged gerbils are more sensitive to the lethal action of a brain IRI than younger animals, but they are protected by PBN administration as are the younger animals. Older gerbils have a significantly higher level of oxidized protein in the brain. Older gerbils have decreased activities of GS and neutral protease, the enzyme that removes oxidized protein, than younger animals. Chronic twice daily administration of PBN (32 mg/kg) for 14 days to older animals significantly lowered brain oxidized protein levels and raised GS and neutral protease activity to those observed in younger animals. Cessation of PBN administration resulted in a time-dependent restoration of protein oxidation levels and enzyme activities back to those observed prior to spin-trap administration. Older gerbils exhibit significantly higher errors in a radial arm maze than younger animals, but older gerbils that had received chronic daily treatments of PBN (32 mg/kg) for 14 days committed significantly less errors than untreated controls. The errors committed in PBN-treated animals was decreased down to the level of those observed in younger animals. Clearly the spin-trapping agent, PBN, appears to have promise in: (1) elucidation of the role of oxidative damage in normal brain function during aging, (2) understanding the development of pathological conditions, and (3) development of treatment regimens for prevention of damage that occurs during the development of pathological conditions and in aging.
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The types of reactive intermediates generated upon reduction of chromium(VI) by glutathione or hydrogen peroxide and the resulting DNA damage have been determined. In vitro, reaction of chromium(VI) with glutathione led to formation of two chromium(V) complexes and the glutathione thiyl radical. When chromium(VI) was reacted with DNA in the presence of glutathione, chromium-DNA adducts were obtained, with no DNA strand breakage. The level of chromium-DNA adduct formation correlated with chromium(V) formation. Reaction of chromium(VI) with hydrogen peroxide led to formation of hydroxyl radical. No chromium(V) was detectable at 24 degrees C (297 K); however, low levels of the tetraperoxochromium(V) complex were detected at 77 K. Reaction of chromium(VI) with DNA in the presence of hydrogen peroxide produced significant DNA strand breakage and the 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine adduct, whose formation correlated with hydroxyl radical production. No significant chromium-DNA adduct formation was detected. Thus, the nature of chromium(VI)-induced DNA damage appears to be dependent on the reactive intermediates, i.e. chromium(V) or hydroxyl radical, produced during the reduction of chromium(VI).
Methylene blue (MB) plus light, in the presence of oxygen, mediates formation of 8-hydroxyguanine in DNA. The yield of 8-hydroxyguanine may be as much as from 2 to 4% of the guanines present. The results presented here show that treatment of supercoiled plasmid DNA with methylene blue plus light causes single-stranded nicks. However, single-stranded nicking occurs approximately 17-fold less frequently than does formation of 8-hydroxyguanine. The nicking rate is reduced in the presence of Mg ion but is not prevented by inhibitors of the iron-catalyzed Fenton reaction or by scavengers of hydroxyl free radicals. Extensive exposure of DNA to light in the presence of MB produces no detectable thiobarbital reactive material thus implicating that single strand nicking does not occur by hydroxyl free radical attack on deoxyribose. Formation of 8-hydroxyguanine is apparently not dependent upon intercalative binding of MB to DNA, since it is formed in polydeoxyguanylic acid.
We have conducted studies to obtain practical knowledge regarding the stability, digestion, and analytical determination of the content of 8-hydroxy-2-deoxy-guanosine (8-OHdG) in oxidatively damaged DNA. Utilizing H2O2 plus uv light to form oxidatively damaged DNA, we found that storage of the DNA at -20 degrees C at alkaline pH caused a significant loss of 8-OHdG, whereas storage at -20 degrees C at neutral or acidic pH prevented loss of 8-OHdG. The 8-OHdG within DNA is stable at 100 degrees C for at least 15 min. Formation of 8-OHdG within DNA using uv light and H2O2 as a hydroxyl free radical-generating system yields the highest amounts when low levels of phosphate buffer are used; but the use of Tris or citrate buffers causes a lower yield of 8-OHdG because these buffers act as scavengers for the hydroxyl free radicals. Independent assessment of hydroxyl free radical flux by the use of salicylate trapping allows assessment of competitive radical reactions. Ethanol washing of plastic microfuge tubes prior to DNA enzymatic digestion improved the yield of 8-OHdG and reduced the variability between samples. Digestion of the oxidatively damaged DNA by the use of a method involving DNase I, endonuclease, phosphodiesterase, and alkaline phosphatase produced the highest yield of 8-OHdG.
A mixture of ADP, ferrous ions, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) generates hydroxyl radicals (OH) that attack the spin trap DMPO (5,5-dimethyl-pyrollidine-N-oxide) to yield the hydroxyl free radical spin-adduct, degrade deoxyribose and benzoate with the release of thiobarbituric acid-reactive material, and hydroxylate benzoate to give fluorescent products. Inhibition studies, with scavengers of the OH radical, suggest that the behavior of iron-ADP in the reaction is complicated by the formation of ternary complexes with certain scavengers and detector molecules. In addition, iron-ADP reacting with H2O2 appears to release a substantial number of OH radicals free into solution. During the generation of OH radicals the ADP molecule was, as expected, damaged by the iron bound to it. Damage to the iron ligand in this way is not normally monitored in reaction systems that use specific detector molecules for OH radical damage. Under certain reaction conditions the ligand may be the major recipient of OH radical damage thereby leading to the incorrect assumption that the iron ligand is a poor Fenton reactant.
We have discovered that methylene blue plus light mediates the formation of 8-OHdG in DNA. Methylene blue is one of several thiazin dyes and we report here that the other thiazin dyes tested, in combination with white light, are effective in mediating 8-OHdG formation in DNA. The effectiveness of light plus the thiazin dyes in forming 8-OHdG in DNA were as follows: methylene blue greater than azure B greater than azure A greater than toluidine blue greater than thionin. Two other compounds tested; riboflavin and fuschin acid, in combination with light, caused formation of very little, if any, 8-OHdG in DNA. Thiazin dye mediated formation of 8-OHdG in DNA was not inhibited by the spin trap alpha-phenyl-t-butyl nitrone, which supports our previous observations that oxygen free radical scavengers did not inhibit methylene blue plus light mediated 8-OHdG formation in DNA. Ascorbate addition to methylene blue plus DNA, in the absence of light, was ineffective in mediating 8-OHdG formation in DNA.
Free radical-mediated oxidative damage has been implicated in tissue injury resulting from ischemia/reperfusion events. Global cortical ischemia/reperfusion injury to Mongolian gerbil brains was produced by transient occlusion of both common carotid arteries. Protein oxidation, as measured by protein carbonyl content, increased significantly during the reperfusion phase that followed 10 min of ischemia. The activity of glutamine synthetase, an enzyme known to be inactivated by metal-catalyzed oxidation reactions, decreased to 65% of control levels after 2 hr of reperfusion that followed 10 min of ischemia. We also report that the free radical spin trap N-tert-butyl-alpha-phenylnitrone [300 mg/kg (body weight)] administered 60 min before ischemia/reperfusion is initiated, partially prevents protein oxidation and protects from loss of glutamine synthetase activity. In addition, we report a N-tert-butyl-alpha-phenylnitrone-dependent nitroxide radical obtained in the lipid fraction of the ischemia/reperfusion-lesioned brains, but there was very little radical present in the comparable sham-operated control brains. These data strengthen the previous observation utilizing in vivo-trapping methods, that free radical flux is increased during the reperfusion phase of the ischemia-lesioned gerbil brain. The loss of glutamine synthetase would be expected to increase the levels of brain L-glutamate. Thus, the oxidative inactivation of glutamine synthetase may be a critical factor in the neurotoxicity produced after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury.