Oxidative stress is a widely recognized cause of cell death associated with neurodegeneration, inflammation, and aging. Tyrosine nitration in these conditions has been reported extensively, but whether tyrosine nitration is a marker or plays a role in the cell-death processes was unknown. Here, we show that nitration of a single tyrosine residue on a small proportion of 90-kDa heat-shock protein (Hsp90), is sufficient to induce motor neuron death by the P2X7 receptor-dependent activation of the Fas pathway. Nitrotyrosine at position 33 or 56 stimulates a toxic gain of function that turns Hsp90 into a toxic protein. Using an antibody that recognizes the nitrated Hsp90, we found immunoreactivity in motor neurons of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in an animal model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and after experimental spinal cord injury. Our findings reveal that cell death can be triggered by nitration of a single protein and highlight nitrated Hsp90 as a potential target for the development of effective therapies for a large number of pathologies.apoptosis | peroxynitrite | PC12 cells

Despite the importance of protein-polymer bioconjugates, there is no general method for producing homogeneous recombinant protein that contains polymer initiators at defined sites. To address this deficiency, we designed the amino acid 4-(2'-bromoisobutyramido)phenylalanine (1) as an initiator in atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) that would provide a stable linkage between the protein and growing polymer. We synthesized 1 and evolved a Methanococcus jannaschii tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA(CUA) pair to genetically encode this initiator in response to an amber codon. To demonstrate the utility of this initiator, we produced green fluorescent protein (GFP) with 1 site-specifically incorporated on its surface (GFP-1). Purified GFP-1 was then used as an initiator under standard ATRP conditions with a monomer, oligo(ethylene oxide) monomethyl ether methacrylate, efficiently producing a polymer-GFP bioconjugate where the polymer is connected at our selected site on GFP.

Genetic code expansion has provided the ability to site-specifically incorporate a multitude of noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) into proteins for a wide variety of applications, but low ncAA incorporation efficiency can hamper the utility of this powerful technology. When investigating proteins containing the post-translational modification 3-nitro-tyrosine (nitroTyr), we developed second-generation amino-acyl tRNA synthetases (RS) that incorporate nitroTyr at efficiencies roughly an order of magnitude greater than those previously reported and that advanced our ability to elucidate the role of elevated cellular nitroTyr levels in human disease (e.g., Franco, M. et al. 23487751Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A2013110E1102). Here, we explore the origins of the improvement achieved in these second-generation RSs. Crystal structures of the most efficient of these synthetases reveal the molecular basis for the enhanced efficiencies observed in the second-generation nitroTyr-RSs. Although Tyr is not detectably incorporated into proteins when expression media is supplemented with 1 mM nitroTyr, a major difference between the first- and second-generation RSs is that the second-generation RSs have an active site more compatible with Tyr binding. This feature of the second-generation nitroTyr-RSs appears to be the result of using less stringent criteria when selecting from a library of mutants. The observation that a different selection strategy performed on the same library of mutants produced nitroTyr-RSs with dramatically improved efficiencies suggests the optimization of established selection protocols could lead to notable improvements in ncAA-RS efficiencies and thus the overall utility of this technology.

Many unnatural amino acid synthetases have been evolved to enable the site-specific in vivo incorporation of many useful functionalities into proteins. While these unnatural amino acid-tRNA synthetase-tRNA(CUA) pairs do not incorporate endogenous amino acids, their substrate specificity has not been assessed for other unnatural amino acids. Here we demonstrate that the unnatural synthetases can be permissive to many unnatural amino acid substrates. The utility of unnatural synthetases can be further expanded by manipulating the synthetase active sites by mutagenesis. Here we have also shown that an l-2-naphthylalanine synthetase can be converted into a permissive l-4-benzoylphenylalanine synthetase with a single mutation without compromising fidelity. Permissive unnatural amino acid synthetases should significantly expand the tool set available for manipulation of proteins.

Attenuated pain scores observed with liposomal bupivacaine use were associated with significantly lower intravenous opioid and ketorolac use, suggesting that liposomal bupivacaine-containing transversus abdominis plane blocks are well aligned with the opioid-reducing goals of many enhanced recovery protocols.

This article investigates how people process information from aerial photographs to categorize locations. Three cognitive experiments were conducted with human subjects viewing a series of aerial photographs and categorizing the land use for target locations. Reaction time, accuracy, and confidence were considered as dependent variables related to the success of the categorization process. The first experiment considered two categories of land use, the relative size of the visual field, and two rounds of unsupervised learning. Subjects were more successful categorizing higher-order land-use classes than they were lower-order categories. Subjects were significantly more accurate and confident with larger photographs, but not significantly faster. Significant improvements between the rounds indicated unsupervised learning was taking place. The second experiment confirmed the hypothesis that geographers would have more success than nongeographers during a single categorization round. The types of land use considered were significantly related to success. Subjects were again more accurate and confident, but not faster with larger visual fields. A third experiment considered seven rounds of supervised learning, the sex of the subjects, and the amount of experience with photographs. Reaction time and confidence improved with supervised learning, but accuracy did not. Subjects had significantly more success with photographs they viewed more than one time. Male subjects were significantly faster, more accurate, and more confident than female subjects at doing the categorization task. By the seventh learning round the male advantage in reaction time and accuracy was no longer significant, but the male advantage in confidence continued through seven learning rounds.

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