Regulation of the Glutamate/Glutamine Cycle by Nitric Oxide in the Central Nervous System
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2015 Regulation of the Glutamate/glutamine Cycle by Nitric Oxide in the Central Nervous System Karthik Anderson Raju University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Biochemistry Commons, Biology Commons, and the Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons Recommended Citation Raju, Karthik Anderson, "Regulation of the Glutamate/glutamine Cycle by Nitric Oxide in the Central Nervous System" (2015). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1962. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1962 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1962 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Regulation of the Glutamate/glutamine Cycle by Nitric Oxide in the Central Nervous System Abstract Nitric oxide (˙NO) is a critical contributor to glutamatergic neurotransmission in the central nervous system (CNS). Much of its influence is due ot the ability of this molecule to regulate protein structure and function through its posttranslational modification of cysteine esidues,r a process known as S- nitrosylation. However, little is known about the extent of this modification and its associated functional effects in the brain under physiological conditions. We employed mass spectrometry (MS)-based methodologies to interrogate the S-nitrosocysteine proteome in wild-type (WT), neuronal nitric oxide synthase-deficient (nNOS-/-), and endothelial nitric xideo synthase-deficient (eNOS-/-) mouse brain. These approaches identified 269 sites from 136 proteins in the WT brain, with notable reductions in the number of sites detected in either eNOS-/- (50% of WT) or nNOS-/- brain (26% of WT). Gene ontology analysis revealed a cluster of S-nitrosylated proteins participating in the glutamate/glutamine cycle in wild-type and eNOS-/- mice that was underrepresented in nNOS-/- animals, suggesting a role for nNOS-derived ˙NO in the regulation of glutamate utilization in the CNS. Functional profiling of this pathway using 15N- glutamine based metabolomic analyses and enzymatic activity assays uncovered decreased conversion of glutamate to glutamine and increased glutamate oxidation in nNOS-/- mice relative to the other genotypes. Furthermore, site-directed mutagenesis of the rat sodium-dependent excitatory amino acid transporter 2 at Cys373 and Cys562 (Cys561 in mouse sequence), the two sites of S-nitrosylation observed in wild-type and eNOS-/- mice, revealed inhibition of glutamate transport through reversible S- nitrosylation. The selective, nNOS-dependent S-nitrosylation of proteins that govern glutamate transport and metabolism identifies a previously unknown function for ˙NO in glutamatergic neurotransmission. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Neuroscience First Advisor Harry Ischiropoulos Second Advisor Robert G. Kalb Keywords Glutamate, Nitric Oxide, Proteomics, S-Nitrosylation Subject Categories Biochemistry | Biology | Neuroscience and Neurobiology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1962 REGULATION OF THE GLUTAMATE/GLUTAMINE CYCLE BY NITRIC OXIDE IN THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM Karthik Anderson Raju A DISSERTATION in Neuroscience Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Supervisor of Dissertation ____ ____________________ Harry Ischiropoulos, Ph.D. Research Professor, Department of Pediatrics Graduate Group Chairperson _________________ _______ Joshua Gold, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Neuroscience Dissertation Committee Robert Kalb, M.D. Professor, Department of Neurology (Chair) Michael Robinson, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Pediatrics Douglas Coulter, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Pediatrics Sangwon Kim, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry REGULATION OF THE GLUTAMATE/GLUTAMINE CYCLE BY NITRIC OXIDE IN THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM COPYRIGHT 2015 Karthik Anderson Raju This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ny-sa/2.0/ “Science is fun. Science is curiosity. We all have natural curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It’s posing questions and coming up with a method. It’s delving in.” - Sally Ride To my family, who always supported my curiosity (even when it was inconvenient). iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my mentor, Harry Ischiropoulos, for giving me the opportunity to work in a fantastic laboratory with an incredible group of people. His influence and support have been invaluable over the past seven years, and allowed me to be fearless in asking and answering my own questions. He “broke me down to build me back up,” and in the process helped me to better myself as a scientist and a person. I would also like to take this chance to thank current and former members of the Ischiropoulos lab for indulging both my scientific curiosity and my idiocy, including Paschalis-Thomas Doulias, Margarita Tenopoulou, Neal Gould, Jennifer Botchway, Marissa Martinez, Danielle Mor, Scott Ugras, Dick Lightfoot, Malcolm Daniels, and Elpida Tsika. Their support and friendship have made my graduate student experience truly memorable, and made coming to the lab every day an enjoyable experience. Additionally, I would like to thank the members of my committee for their support and guidance over the past six years. Mike Robinson was a vital resource for my project, and gave me the chance to ask questions about glutamate uptake and metabolism that would be impossible anywhere else. Doug Coulter’s expertise in brain slice physiology was irreplaceable, and allowed me to extend my work on brain-derived nitric oxide beyond the initial proteomic analyses to a more biologically relevant setting. Bob Kalb’s insights were critical in helping me to integrate my findings into a bigger conceptual framework of CNS function. Finally, I want to thank Sangwon Kim for his assistance in the last stages of my project, particularly as a resource on S- nitrosylation. Most importantly, I would like to thank the family and friends who stood by me this whole time. Your unwavering support and love is infinitely important to me, and helped me to weather both the highs and the lows of my graduate school experience. Without you, none of this would have been possible. iv ABSTRACT REGULATION OF THE GLUTAMATE/GLUTAMINE CYCLE BY NITRIC OXIDE IN THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM Karthik Anderson Raju Harry Ischiropoulos Nitric oxide (˙NO) is a critical contributor to glutamatergic neurotransmission in the central nervous system (CNS). Much of its influence is due to the ability of this molecule to regulate protein structure and function through its posttranslational modification of cysteine residues, a process known as S-nitrosylation. However, little is known about the extent of this modification and its associated functional effects in the brain under physiological conditions. We employed mass spectrometry (MS)-based methodologies to interrogate the S-nitrosocysteine proteome in wild-type (WT), neuronal nitric oxide synthase-deficient (nNOS -/-), and endothelial nitric oxide synthase-deficient (eNOS -/-) mouse brain. These approaches identified 269 sites from 136 proteins in the WT brain, with notable reductions in the number of sites detected in either eNOS -/- (50% of WT) or nNOS -/- brain (26% of WT). Gene ontology analysis revealed a cluster of S- nitrosylated proteins participating in the glutamate/glutamine cycle in wild-type and eNOS -/- mice that was underrepresented in nNOS -/- animals, suggesting a role for nNOS-derived ˙NO in the regulation of glutamate utilization in the CNS. Functional profiling of this pathway using 15 N- glutamine based metabolomic analyses and enzymatic activity assays uncovered decreased conversion of glutamate to glutamine and increased glutamate oxidation in nNOS -/- mice relative to the other genotypes. Furthermore, site-directed mutagenesis of the rat sodium-dependent excitatory amino acid transporter 2 at Cys 373 and Cys 562 (Cys 561 in mouse sequence), the two sites of S-nitrosylation observed in wild-type and eNOS -/- mice, revealed inhibition of glutamate transport through reversible S-nitrosylation. The selective, nNOS-dependent S-nitrosylation of v proteins that govern glutamate transport and metabolism identifies a previously unknown function for ˙NO in glutamatergic neurotransmission. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................ IV ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... V-VI LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... IX LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................. IX-X CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Chemical Properties of Nitric Oxide......................................................................................