Human Glutathione Transferase P1-1 and Nitric Oxide Carriers. A new role for an old enzyme

S-Nitrosoglutathione and the dinitrosyl-diglutathionyl iron complex are involved in the storage and transport of NO in biological systems. Their interactions with the human glutathione transferase P1-1 may reveal an additional physiological role for this enzyme. In the absence of GSH, S-nitrosoglutathione causes rapid and stable S-nitrosylation of both the Cys⁴⁷ and Cys¹⁰¹ residues. Ion spray ionization-mass spectrometry ruled out the possibility of S-glutathionylation and confirms the occurrence of a poly-S-nitrosylation in GST P1-1. S-Ni-trosylation of Cys ⁴⁷ lowers the affinity 10-fold for GSH, but this negative effect is minimized by a half-site reactivity mechanism that protects one Cys ⁴⁷/dimer from nitrosylation. Thus, glutathione transferase P1-1, retaining most of its original activity, may act as a NO carrier protein when GSH depletion occurs in the cell. The dinitrosyl-diglutathionyl iron complex, which is formed by S-nitrosoglutathione decomposition in the presence of physiological concentrations of GSH and traces of ferrous ions, binds with extraordinary affinity to one active site of this dimeric enzyme (K_i < 10^-12 M) and triggers negative cooperativity in the vacant subunit (K_i = 10^-9 M). The complex bound to the enzyme is stable for hours, whereas in the free form and at low concentrations, its life time is only a few minutes. ESR and molecular modeling studies provide a reasonable explanation of this strong interaction, suggesting that Tyr ⁷ and enzyme-bound GSH could be involved in the coordination of the iron atom. All of the observed findings suggest that glutathione transferase P1-1, by means of an intersubunit communication, may act as a NO carrier under different cellular conditions while maintaining its well known detoxificating activity toward dangerous compounds.