Xiaojun Ren

A bis-cyclodextrin diselenide with glutathione peroxidase-like activity.

A diselenide, 2,2-diseleno-bis-beta-cyclodextrin (2-SeCD), was synthesized to imitate the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase (GPX). The GPX mimic accepts a variety of hydroperoxides as substrates. The GPX activities, reduction of H(2)O(2), tert-butyl hydroperoxide and cumenyl hydroperoxide by glutathione, are 7.4, 4.5 and 10.2 U/micromol, respectively. In contrast to ebselen (PZ51), the diselenide displays high GPX-like activity. The reduction of hydroperoxide by glutathione in the presence of a radical trap shows that the mimic catalyzes the reaction via a non-radical mechanism. A ping-pong mechanism was observed in the steady-state kinetic studies of the 2-SeCD-catalyzed reaction.

A Semisynthetic Glutathione Peroxidase with High Catalytic Efficiency: Selenoglutathione Transferase

Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) protects cells against oxidative damage by catalyzing the reduction of hydroperoxides by glutathione (GSH). GPX therefore has potential therapeutic value as an antioxidant, but its pharmacological development has been limited because GPX uses a selenocysteine as its catalytic group and it is difficult to generate selenium-containing proteins with traditional recombinant DNA technology. Here, we show that naturally occurring proteins can be modified to generate GPX activity. The rat theta-class glutathione transferase T2-2 (rGST T2-2) presents an ideal scaffold for the design of a novel GPX catalyst because it already binds GSH and contains a serine close to the substrate binding site, which can be chemically modified to bind selenium. The modified Se-rGST T2-2 efficiently catalyzes the reduction of hydrogen peroxide, and the GPX activity surpasses the activities of some natural GPXs.

A novel dicyclodextrinyl ditelluride compound with antioxidant activity

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) primarily arise from products of normal metabolic activities and are thought to be the etiology of many diseases. A novel dicyclodextrinyl ditelluride (2‐TeCD) compound was designed to be a functional mimic of the glutathione peroxidase that normally removes ROS. 2‐TeCD exhibited highly catalytic efficiency and good water solubility. Antioxidant activity was studied by using ferrous sulfate/ascorbate‐induced mitochondria damage model system. 2‐TeCD protected the mitochondria against oxidative damage in a dose‐dependent manner and exhibited also great antioxidant ability in comparison with 2‐phenyl‐1,2‐benziososelenazol‐3(2H)‐one. The mimic may result in better clinical therapies for the treatment of ROS‐mediated diseases.

Cloning and expression of a single-chain catalytic antibody that acts as a glutathione peroxidase mimic with high catalytic efficiency.

Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) has a powerful role in scavenging reactive oxygen species. In previous papers we have developed a new strategy for generating abzymes: the monoclonal antibody with a substrate-binding site is first prepared, then a catalytic group is incorporated into the monoclonal antibodys binding site by using chemical mutation [Luo, Zhu, Ding, Gao, Sun, Liu, Yang and Shen (1994) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 198, 1240-1247; Ding, Liu, Zhu, Luo, Zhao and Ni (1998) Biochem. J. 332, 251-255]. Since then we have established a series of catalytic antibodies capable of catalysing the decomposition of hydroperoxides by GSH. The monoclonal antibody 2F3 was raised against GSH-S-2,4-dinitrophenyl t-butyl ester and exhibited high catalytic efficiency, exceeding that of rabbit liver GPX, after chemical mutation. To produce pharmaceutical proteins and to study the reason why it exhibits high catalytic efficiency, we sequenced, cloned and expressed the variable regions of 2F3 antibody as a single-chain Fv fragment (2F3-scFv) in different bacterial strains. The amounts of 2F3-scFv proteins expressed from JM109 (DE3), BL21 (DE3), and BL21 (coden plus) were 5-10%, 15-20% and 25-30% of total bacterial proteins respectively. The 2F3-scFv was expressed as inclusion bodies, purified in the presence of 8 M urea by Co(2+)-immobilized metal-affinity chromatography (IMAC) and renatured to the active form in vitro by gel filtration. The binding constants of the active 2F3-scFv for GSH and GSSG were 2.46 x 10(5) M(-1) and 1.03 x 10(5) M(-1) respectively, which were less by one order of magnitude than that of the intact 2F3 antibody. The active 2F3-scFv was converted into selenium-containing 2F3-scFv (Se-2F3-scFv) by chemical modification of the reactive serine; the GPX activity of the Se-2F3-scFv was 3394 units/micromol, which approaches the activity of rabbit liver GPX.

UV-B induced keratinocyte apoptosis is blocked by 2-selenium-bridged β-cyclodextrin, a GPX mimic

Cell proliferation and cell death of keratinocytes are tightly regulated to ensure epidermal homeostasis. UV-B induces keratinocyte apoptosis. UV-B also induces lipid peroxidation of keratinocytes to increase their amount of malondialdehyde (MDA). These phenomena can be explained by the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by UV-B radiation. We synthesized 2-selenium-bridged beta-cyclodextrin (2-SeCD) to imitate glutathione peroxidase (GPX), an important antioxidant and established a damage system, in which keratinocytes can be damaged by Ultraviolet B (UV-B) radiation. Using this damage system we studied 2-SeCD protection of keratinocytes against injury induced by UV-B. Experimental results showed that 2-SeCD could protect keratinocytes from apoptosis. Moreover, 2-SeCD inhibits lipid peroxidation of keratinocytes and scavenges ROS. 2-SeCD inhibits the UV-B induced apoptotic signal transduction. This antiapoptotic mechanism may be partly related to the elimination of hydrogen peroxide.

Bioimprinted protein exhibits glutathione peroxidase activity

A strategy for design of bioimprinted proteins with glutathione peroxidase (GPX) activity has been proposed. The proteins imprinted with a glutathione derivative were converted into selenium-containing proteins by chemical modifying the reactive hydroxyl groups of serines followed by sodium hydrogen selenide displacement. These selenium-containing proteins exhibited remarkable GPX activities and the GPX activities of reduction of H 2 O 2 by glutathione (GSH) were found to be 101-817 U μmol -1 , which approaches the activity of a selenium-containing catalytic antibody elicited by a hapten similar to our template. The steady state kinetic study for imprinted protein catalysis revealed Michaelis-Menten kinetics for both H 2 O 2 and GSH, e.g. the pesudo-first-order rate constant k cat (H 2 O 2 ) and the apparent Michaelis constant K m (H 2 O 2 ) at 1 mM GSH were calculated to be 784 min -1 and 1.24 × 10 -3 M, respectively, and the apparent second-order rate constant k cat (H 2 O 2 )/K m (H 2 O 2 ) was determined to be 6.33 x 10 5 (M min) -1 . The kinetics and the template inhibition showed that the strategy might be a remarkably efficient one for generating artificial enzyme with GPX activity.