Reactive cysteine residues in the oxidative dimerization and Cu2+ induced aggregation of human ?D-crystallin: Implications for age-related cataract.

ABSTRACT: Cysteine (Cys) residues are major causes of crystallin disulfide formation and aggregation in aging and cataractous human lenses. We recently found that disulfide linkages are highly and partly conserved in ?- and ?-crystallins, respectively, in human age-related nuclear cataract and glutathione depleted LEGSKO mouse lenses, and could be mimicked by in vitro oxidation. Here we determined which Cys residues are involved in disulfide-mediated crosslinking of recombinant human ?D-crystallin (h?D). In vitro diamide oxidation revealed dimer formation by SDS-PAGE and LC-MS analysis with Cys 111-111 and C111-C19 as intermolecular disulfides and Cys 111-109 as intramolecular sites. Mutation of Cys111 to alanine completely abolished dimerization. Addition of ?B-crystallin was unable to protect Cys 111 from dimerization. However, Cu2+-induced h?D-crystallin aggregation was suppressed up to 50% and 80% by mutants C109A and C111A, respectively, as well as by total glutathionylation. In contrast to our recently published results using ICAT-labeling method, manual mining of the same database confirmed the specific involvement of Cys111 in disulfides with no free Cys111 detectable in ?D-crystallin from old and cataractous human lenses. Surface accessibility studies show that Cys111 in h?D is the most exposed Cys residue (29%), explaining thereby its high propensity toward oxidation and polymerization in the aging lens.

SUBMITTER: Ramkumar S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6590075 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature