Reductive ligation mediated one-step disulfide formation of S -nitrosothiols

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ol101863s

A one-step reductive ligation mediated disulfide formation of S-nitrosothiols was developed. This reaction involves the reaction of the S-nitroso group with phosphine-thioesters to form sulfenamide and thiolate intermediates, which then undergo a fast intermolecular disulfide formation to form stable conjugates. This reaction can be used to design new biosensors of S-nitrosated proteins.

Full text of DOI:10.1021/ol101863s

ORGANIC
LETTERS
2010
Vol. 12, No. 18
4208-4211
Reductive Ligation Mediated One-Step
Disulfide Formation of S-Nitrosothiols
Jiming Zhang,† Sheng Li,‡ Dehui Zhang,† Hua Wang,† A. Richard Whorton,‡ and
Ming Xian*,†
Department of Chemistry, Washington State UniVersity, Pullman, Washington 99164,
and Department of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology, Duke UniVersity Medical Center,
Durham, North Carolina 27710
mxian@wsu.edu
Received August 9, 2010
ABSTRACT
A one-step reductive ligation mediated disulfide formation of S-nitrosothiols was developed. This reaction involves the reaction of the S-nitroso
group with phosphine-thioesters to form sulfenamide and thiolate intermediates, which then undergo a fast intermolecular disulfide formation
to form stable conjugates. This reaction can be used to design new biosensors of S-nitrosated proteins.
S-Nitrosation is an important post-translational modification
that can affect protein activity, localization, or stability. This
reversible modification is suggested to occur as a result of
biological nitric oxide (NO) formation and has been thought
of as a mechanism by which NO can transmit signals both
within and between cells and tissues.1 However, the detection
of protein S-nitrosation is still problematic because the
nitrosation products, i.e., S-nitrosothiols (RSNOs), are very
labile moieties.2 As a unique functional group, SNO is
expected to have distinct reactivity from other biological
functional groups. If new reactions which specifically target
SNO and convert unstable SNO to stable products under
physiological conditions can be developed, such reactions
would hold considerable promise in applications for the
detection of protein S-nitrosation.
In 2008, our group reported a fast reductive ligation of
RSNOs, which can selectively convert SNO to a relatively
stable sulfenamide product under very mild conditions
(Scheme 1, eq 1).3 This reaction proceeds through a
Staudinger-ligation type mechanism.4 Recently, in the study
of a “traceless” version of the reductive ligation, we
discovered an unexpected bisligation, which led to the
formation of stable disulfide-iminophosphorane products
from primary RSNOs (Scheme 1, eq 2).5 In this process,
the thiolate intermediate undergoes an intramolecular sub-
stitution with the pseudo-sulfenamide linkage to form the
disulfide-iminophosphorane product in excellent yields.
On the basis of the high reactivity of the sulfenamide toward
thiolate observed in bisligation, we envisioned that phosphine-
† Washington State University.
‡ Duke University Medical Center.
(1) (a) Lancaster, J. R., Jr. Nitric Oxide 2008, 19, 68–72. (b) Zhang,
Y.; Hogg, N. Free Radical Biol. Med. 2005, 38, 831–838. (c) Hess, D. T.;
Matsumoto, A.; Kim, S.-O.; Marshall, H. E.; Stamler, J. S. Nat. ReV. Mol.
Cell. Biol. 2005, 6, 150–166. (d) Foster, M. W.; McMahon, T. J.; Stamler,
J. S. Trends Mol. Med. 2003, 9, 160–168.
(2) For a recent RSNO detection method, see: (a) Bechtold, E.; Reisz,
J. A.; Klomsiri, C.; Tsang, A. W.; Wright, M. W.; Poole, L. B.; Furdui,
C. M.; King, S. B. ACS Chem. Biol. 2010, 5, 405–414. For selected reviews
on RSNO detection, see: (b) Gow, A.; Doctor, A.; Mannick, J.; Gaston, B.
J. Chromatogr. B 2007, 851, 140–151. (c) Kettenhofen, N. J.; Broniowska,
K. A.; Keszler, A.; Zhang, Y.; Hogg, N. J. Chromatogr. B 2007, 851, 152–
159. (d) MacArthur, P. H.; Shiva, S.; Gladwin, M. T. J. Chromatogr. B
2007, 851, 93–105. (e) Jaffrey, S. R. Methods Enzymol. 2005, 396, 105–
118. For deficiencies of current methods, see: (f) Giustarini, D.; Milzani,
A.; Dalle-Donne, I.; Rossi, R. J. Chromatogr. B 2007, 851, 124–139. (g)
Gladwin, M. T.; Wang, X.; Hogg, N. Free Radical Biol. Med. 2006, 41,
557–561.
(3) Wang, H.; Xian, M. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 6598–6601.
(4) (a) Saxon, E.; Bertozzi, C. R. Science 2000, 287, 2007–2010. (b)
Lin, F. L.; Hoyt, H. M.; van Halbeek, H.; Bergman, R. G.; Bertozzi, C. R.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 2686–2695. (c) Wang, H.; Zhang, J.; Xian,
M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 13238–13239.
(5) (a) Zhang, J.; Wang, H.; Xian, M. Org. Lett. 2009, 11, 477–480. (b)
Zhang, J.; Wang, H.; Xian, M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 3854–3855.
10.1021/ol101863s  2010 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 08/23/2010

Scheme 1
Table 1. Reaction between RSNO and Phosphine-thioesters
entry
6
yield of 10 [%]a
1
2
3
4
5
6a
6b
6c
6d
6e
79
82
63
51
43
thioester substrates like 6 should undergo a reductive ligation
mediated one-step disulfide formation with RSNOs (Scheme 2):
a Yield of isolated product.
Scheme 2
1a was treated with a tertiary thiol-based substrate 6e. Presum-
ably the t-butylthiolate generated in the reductive ligation was
less reactive toward the sulfenamide intermediate, due to the
steric hindrance. In all examples, the disulfide formation proved
to be a fast reaction which usually completed within 1 h.
To explore the generality of this disulfide formation, we next
tested the reaction of substrate 6b with a series of S-nitroso-
cysteine derivatives (1a-1h). As shown in Table 2, the desired
Table 2. One-Step Disulfide Formation of RSNO
the reaction between RSNO 1 and phosphine 6 should generate
azaylide 7 first. Then, an intramolecular acyl transfer should occur
to provide the intermediate 7b. Upon hydrolysis in aqueous buffer,
7b should be converted to the sulfenamide product 8 and thiolate
9. Finally, the intermolecular reaction between 8 and 9 could
proceed spontaneously to provide a stable disulfide 10 and liberate
the phosphine oxide 11. As the thioesters are better leaving groups
than esters, we expect that substrates like 6 should facilitate the
reductive ligation process. In addition, the formation of simple
disulfide products, without the bulky phosphine adducts, would
be attractive for the applications in protein systems.
With this idea in mind, a series of phosphine-thioester
substrates were prepared and tested with a RSNO model
compound, 1a (Table 1). As expected, the desired disulfide
products were obtained in a mixture solvent THF/PBS buffer
(pH 7.4). Other byproducts isolated were corresponding phos-
phine-oxide 12 and amide 11. With primary thiol-based thioester
substrates (6a and 6b), the disulfide products were isolated in
excellent yields. Thiophenol-based thioester substrates (6c and
6d) also resulted in good yields of disulfide products. However,
a moderate yield (43%, entry 5) of disulfide was observed when
a Yield of isolated product.
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disulfide products were obtained in good yields in all cases. It
should be mentioned that the formation of the sulfenamide
intermediate was not observed with these substrates (by TLC).
This suggested that the disulfide formation was a faster reaction
than the formation of sulfenamide intermediate.
To probe the formation of the sulfenamide intermediates as
shown in the mechanism proposal, we carried out the experi-
ment using some different substrates (Scheme 3). When the
also added into the reaction mixture. We anticipated that the
reductive ligation between 1b and 6b should generate sulfena-
mide 16 and thiolate 17 quickly. Due to the presence of 15 in
the reaction, thiolate 17 could react with both 15 and 16. Indeed,
we isolated the desired product 13b in 46% yield, as well as
the crossover product 13a in 34% yield.
If this reaction will be applied for labeling protein SNOs,
a concern is that the thiolate intermediate may react with
disulfides in proteins to give false positive linkage. To
address this question, we tested the reaction between 1a and
6b in the presence of a disulfide compound 18 (Scheme 5).
Scheme 3
Scheme 5
However, only the desired product 13a was obtained from
the reaction. No crossover product with 18 was observed.
To address the bio-orthogonality of the phosphine-thioester
substrates, we tested the reactions between 6b and potential
cellular nucleophiles such as thiols and amines. 6b appeared
to be quite stable toward lysine derivatives and cysteine
derivatives as no reaction was observed (Scheme 6, see
Supporting Information for experimental details).
tertiary RSNO 1i was treated with 6b (eq A), corresponding
sulfenamide 14 was isolated in good yield, while the disulfide
product was not observed. This result is consistent with previous
observations3 that sulfenamides generated from tertiary RSNOs
are much more stable than the ones generated from primary
RSNOs. In addition, when a homocysteine SNO derivative 1g
was treated with 6b and when substrate 1a was treated with a
phosphine-thioester (6f) prepared from a secondary thiol, we
observed the formation of the sulfenamide intermediates (14a
and 14b, eqs B and C). Therefore, the results shown in Scheme
3 clearly demonstrated that sulfenamides were the intermediates
in the reaction between RSNOs and phosphine-thioesters.
To further prove the presence of the sulfenamide intermediate
in this reaction, we designed a crossover experiment (Scheme
4). When the reaction between RSNO 1b and phosphine
substrate 6b was carried out, a sulfenamide compound 15 was
Scheme 6
To explore the application of this new reaction in the
detection of S-nitrosated proteins, experiments shown in
Scheme 7 were carried out. Briefly, COS-7 cells were first
treated with S-nitrosocysteine (CysNO). It is known that the
treatment of cells with CysNO will result in the S-nitrosation
Scheme 7
Scheme 4
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Org. Lett., Vol. 12, No. 18, 2010

on proteins.6 The cells were then washed, fixed, and
permeablized. After blocking free thiols with NEM, the cells
were incubated with a biotin-linked phosphine substrate 20.
Cellular proteins that were S-nitrosated should react with
20 to form a stable disulfide linkage with biotin. The labeled
proteins were detected by NeutrAvidin-HRP and visualized
by ECL Plus Western Blotting Detection System. As
expected, we observed a number of labeled proteins on SDS-
PAGE from CysNO treated cells (lane 2). In the control
experiment, non-CysNO treated cells were carried through
the same process, and no labeled proteins were observed on
SDS-PAGE (lane 1). We also found that the signals of
CysNO treated cells were reversible by DTT (lane 3). This
result confirmed the formation of disulfide linkages between
the proteins and biotin. The GAPDH bands shown in the
lower panel exhibited equal protein loading in these experi-
ments.
lane (lane 1, Scheme 7) should rule out that possibility. To
further clarify this question, a structurally related thioester
compound 21 was prepared and used in CysNO treated cells.
No biotin labeling was observed with 21 (even in the
presence of PPh3, see Figure S1 in the Supporting Informa-
tion). These results clearly demonstrated the efficiency and
specificity of the phosphine-mediated disulfide formation on
SNO moieties.
In summary, a reductive ligation mediated disulfide
formation between RSNOs and phosphine-thioester substrates
has been developed. This reaction can selectively convert
unstable RSNOs to stable disulfides in one step under very
mild conditions. We also demonstrated that this reaction can
be used to identify SNO proteins in cell extracts. Further
explorations of this reaction for the detection of protein
S-nitrosation continue in our laboratory.
In this biotin-labeling experiment, one concern was that
reagent 20 may react with cellular nucleophiles (such as
amines or thiols) to release biotin-linked thiolate, which
might react with the disulfides in proteins to form false
positive biotin conjugates. However, experiment results
shown in Schemes 5 and 6 and more importantly the fact of
lacking any observed biotin-labeled proteins in the control
Acknowledgment. This work is funded by the American
Heart Association (0930120N) and a CAREER award from
NSF (0844931) to M.X. and NIH (R01HL0088559) to
A.R.W. We thank Prof. Jack R. Lancaster, Jr. (University
of Alabama), for helpful discussion.
Supporting Information Available: Synthetic procedures,
spectroscopic data, and experimental procedures. This ma-
terial is available free of charge via the Internet at
http://pubs.acs.org.
(6) (a) Forrester, M. T.; Thompson, J. W.; Foster, M. W.; Nogueira, L.;
Moseley, M. A.; Stamler, J. S. Nat. Biotechnol. 2009, 27, 557–559. (b)
Jaffrey, S. R.; Erdjument-Bromage, H.; Ferris, C. D.; Tempst, P.; Snyder,
S. H. Nat. Cell Biol. 2001, 3, 193–197. (c) Forrester, M. T.; Foster, M. W.;
Benhar, M.; Stamler, J. S. Free Radical Biol. Med. 2009, 46, 119–126.
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