Thiol-disulfide redox equilibria of glutathione metaboloma compounds investigated by tandem mass spectrometry.

The thiol group of cysteine plays a pivotal role in structural and functional biology. We use mass spectrometry to study glutathione-related homo- and heterodimeric disulfides, aiming at understanding the factors affecting the redox potentials of different disulfide/thiol pairs. Several electrospray ionization (ESI)-protonated disulfides of cysteamine, cysteine, penicillamine, N-acetylcysteine, N-acetylpenicillamine, gammaGluCySH, HSCyGly, and glutathione were analyzed on a triple quadrupole instrument to measure their energy-resolved tandem mass spectra. Fission of the disulfide bond yields RSHH(+) and RS(+) ions. The logarithm of the intensity ratio of the RS(+)/RSHH(+) fragments in homodimeric disulfides is proportional to the normal reduction potential of their RSSR/RSH pairs determined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in solution, the more reducing ones yielding the higher ratios. Also in some R(1)S-SR(2) disulfides, the ratio of the intensities of the RSH + H(+) and RS(+) ions of each participating thiol shows a linear relationship with the Nernst equation potential difference of the corresponding redox pairs. This behavior allows us to measure the redox potentials of some disulfide/thiol pairs by using different thiol-reducing probes of known oxidoreductive potential as reference. To assist understanding of the fission mechanism of the disulfide bond, the fragments tentatively identified as 'sulfenium' were themselves fragmented; accurate mass measurement of the resulting second-generation fragments demonstrated a loss of thioformaldehyde, thus supporting the assigned structure of this elusive intermediate of the oxidative stress pathway. Understanding this fragmentation process allows us to employ this technique with larger molecules to measure by mass spectrometry the micro-redox properties of different disulfide bonds in peptides with catalytic and signaling biological activity.