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The antiinflammatory drug ebselen (2-phenyl-1,2-benzisoselenazo-3(2H)-one) is known to bind covalently to thiols to form seleno disulfides that, directly or indirectly, are responsible for its pharmacological effects. Due to its reactive thiol group and high plasma concentration, albumin is a preferred target of ebselen, which it binds covalently. Ebselen should not, then, be available for intracellular actions at other target proteins. We have addressed this question, and show by difference spectroscopy that the interaction of ebselen with albumin occurs stoichiometrically under ring opening, but is readily reversible in the presence of glutathione. With intact human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN), a similar stoichiometric reaction with distinct spectral features was observed with ebselen that was completely abolished by pretreatment of PMN with N-ethylmaleimide, but not by selective depletion of cellular glutathione. Human platelets, again, exhibited different spectral changes upon addition of ebselen. In agreement with results reported in the literature, we show that 14C-ebselen is in dynamic equilibrium with all accessible thiol groups and, hence, despite mostly being bound covalently to albumin, it will exchange rapidly with other target proteins in PMN or platelets.

Soluble guanylate cyclase of human platelets was stimulated by thiol oxidizing compounds like diamide and the reactive disulfide 4, 4'-dithiodipyridine. Activation followed a bell-shaped curve, revealing somewhat different optimum concentrations for each compound, although in both cases, higher concentrations were inhibitory. Diamide at a concentration of 100 microM transiently activated the enzyme. In the presence of moderate concentrations of diamide and 4,4'-dithiodipyridine, causing a two- to fourfold activation by themselves, the stimulatory activity of NO-releasing compounds like sodium nitroprusside was potentiated. In contrast, higher concentrations of thiol oxidizing compounds inhibited the NO-stimulated activation of soluble guanylate cyclase. Activation of guanylate cyclase was accompanied by a reduction in reduced glutathione and a concomitant formation of protein-bound glutathione (protein-SSG). Both compounds showed an activating potency as long as reduced glutathione remained, leading to inhibition of the enzyme just when all reduced glutathione was oxidized. Activation was reversible while reduced glutathione recovered and protein-SSG disappeared. We propose that diamide or reactive disulfides and other thiol oxidizing compounds inducing thiol-disulfide exchange activate soluble guanylate cyclase. In this respect partial oxidation is associated with enzyme activation, whereas massive oxidation results in loss of enzymatic activity. Physiologically, partial disulfide formation may amplify the signal toward NO as the endogenous activator of soluble guanylate cyclase.

Cellular proteins may be designated to fast degradation by their N-terminal amino acids, and especially a N-terminal arginine residue should have an extremely destabilizing effect on cytosol proteins. We investigated the post-translational arginylation of cytosol proteins and especially of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) by the cytosolic enzyme arginyl transferase by incubation with radioactive L-arginyl-tRNA and isolation of ODC with our monoclonal antibody. Arginylated ODC had a specific radioactivity 8600 times that of the bulk of cytosolic proteins and Edman-degradation of this ODC showed that the post-translational arginylation occurred only at the L-amino-end of the enzyme. The inhibitor of arginyltransferase, L-Glutamyl-L-Valyl-L-Phenylalanine, increased the half-life of ODC in cultured hepatocytes from 39 min to more than 90 min. This post-translational arginylation of ODC and also of other cytosol proteins is reversible. At least 25 different cytosol proteins in addition to ODC can be arginylated in hepatocytes, and at least 15 different proteins can be arginylated in Dictyostelium discoideum. The arginylated proteins are much more rapidly degraded by cellular proteinases, especially by calpains, than those cytosolic proteins which are not arginylated.