SUMMARY Ferroptosis is a form of programmed cell death pathogenic to several acute and chronic diseases and executed via oxygenation of polyunsaturated phosphatidylethanolamines (PE) by 15-lipoxygenases (15-LO) that normally use free polyunsaturated fatty acids as substrates. Mechanisms of the altered 15-LO substrate specificity are enigmatic. We sought a common ferroptosis regulator for 15LO. We discovered that PEBP1, a scaffold protein inhibitor of protein kinase cascades, complexes with two 15LO isoforms, 15LO1 and 15LO2, and changes their substrate competence to generate hydroperoxy-PE. Inadequate reduction of hydroperoxy-PE due to insufficiency or dysfunction of a selenoperoxidase, GPX4, leads to ferroptosis. We demonstrated the importance of PEBP1-dependent regulatory mechanisms of ferroptotic death in airway epithelial cells in asthma, kidney epithelial cells in renal failure and cortical and hippocampal neurons in brain trauma. As master regulators of ferroptotic cell death with profound implications for human disease, PEBP1/15LO complexes represent a new target for drug discovery.

The Mn(II) and Mn(III) complexes of the pentadentate ligand N,N-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)amine-N-ethyl-2-pyridine-2-carboxamide (PaPy3H; H is the dissociable carboxamide H), namely, [Mn(PaPy3)(H2O)]ClO4 (1) and [Mn(PaPy3)(Cl)]ClO4 (2), with bound carboxamido nitrogen have been isolated and characterized. The high-spin Mn(II) center in 1 is very sensitive to dioxygen, and this complex is rapidly converted into 2 upon reaction with Cl- in air. The bound carboxamido nitrogen in 1 is responsible for this sensitivity toward oxidation since the analogous Schiff base complex [Mn(SBPy3)Cl]ClO4 (4) is very resistant to oxidation. Reaction of NO with 1 affords the diamagnetic [Mn-NO]6 nitrosyl [Mn(PaPy3)(NO)]ClO4 (5). Complexes with no bound carboxamido nitrogen such as 4 and [Mn(PaPy3H)(Cl)2] (3) do not react with NO. No reaction with NO is observed with the Mn(III) complexes 2 and [Mn(PaPy3)(MeCN)]2+ either. Collectively these reactions indicate that NO reacts only with the Mn(II) center ligated to at least one carboxamido nitrogen. Both the carbonyl and N-O stretching frequencies (nu(CO) and nu(NO)) of the present and related complexes strongly suggest a [low-spin Mn(II)-NO*] formulation for 5. The alternative description [low-spin Mn(I)-NO+] is not supported by the spectroscopic and redox behavior of 5. Complex 5 is the first example of a [Mn-NO]6 nitrosyl that exhibits photolability of NO upon illumination with low-intensity tungsten lamps in solvents such as MeCN and H2O. The rapid NO loss from 5 leads to the formation of the corresponding solvato species [Mn(PaPy3)(MeCN)]2+ under aerobic conditions. Oxidation of 5 with (NH4)2[Ce(NO3)6] in MeCN affords the highly reactive paramagnetic (S = 1/2) [MnNO]5 nitrosyl [Mn(PaPy3)(NO)](NO3)2 (6) in high yield. Spectroscopic and magnetic studies confirm a [low-spin Mn(II)-NO+] formulation for 6. The N-O stretching frequencies (nu(NO)) of 5, 6, and analogous nitrosyls reported by other groups collectively suggest that nu(NO) is a better indicator of the oxidation state of NO (NO+, NO*, or NO-) in non-heme iron and other transition-metal complexes with bound NO.

Ferroptosis is a death program executed via selective oxidation of arachidonic acid-phosphatidylethanolamines (AA-PE) by 15-lipoxygenases. In mammalian cells and tissues, ferroptosis has been pathogenically associated with brain, kidney, and liver injury/diseases. We discovered that a prokaryotic bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, that does not contain AA-PE can express lipoxygenase (pLoxA), oxidize host AA-PE to 15-hydroperoxy-AA-PE (15-HOO-AA-PE), and trigger ferroptosis in human bronchial epithelial cells. Induction of ferroptosis by clinical P. aeruginosa isolates from patients with persistent lower respiratory tract infections was dependent on the level and enzymatic activity of pLoxA. Redox phospholipidomics revealed elevated levels of oxidized AA-PE in airway tissues from patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) but not with emphysema or CF without P. aeruginosa. We believe that the evolutionarily conserved mechanism of pLoxA-driven ferroptosis may represent a potential therapeutic target against P. aeruginosa-associated diseases such as CF and persistent lower respiratory tract infections.

Objectives N‐acetylcysteine (NAC) is a clinically approved thiol‐containing redox modulatory compound currently in trials for many neurological and psychiatric disorders. Although generically labeled as an “antioxidant,” poor understanding of its site(s) of action is a barrier to its use in neurological practice. Here, we examined the efficacy and mechanism of action of NAC in rodent models of hemorrhagic stroke. Methods Hemin was used to model ferroptosis and hemorrhagic stroke in cultured neurons. Striatal infusion of collagenase was used to model intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in mice and rats. Chemical biology, targeted lipidomics, arachidonate 5‐lipoxygenase (ALOX5) knockout mice, and viral‐gene transfer were used to gain insight into the pharmacological targets and mechanism of action of NAC. Results NAC prevented hemin‐induced ferroptosis by neutralizing toxic lipids generated by arachidonate‐dependent ALOX5 activity. NAC efficacy required increases in glutathione and is correlated with suppression of reactive lipids by glutathione‐dependent enzymes such as glutathione S ‐transferase. Accordingly, its protective effects were mimicked by chemical or molecular lipid peroxidation inhibitors. NAC delivered postinjury reduced neuronal death and improved functional recovery at least 7 days following ICH in mice and can synergize with clinically approved prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 ). Interpretation NAC is a promising, protective therapy for ICH, which acted to inhibit toxic arachidonic acid products of nuclear ALOX5 that synergized with exogenously delivered protective PGE 2 in vitro and in vivo. The findings provide novel insight into a target for NAC, beyond the generic characterization as an antioxidant, resulting in neuroprotection and offer a feasible combinatorial strategy to optimize efficacy and safety in dosing of NAC for treatment of neurological disorders involving ferroptosis such as ICH. Ann Neurol 2018;84:854–872

Resistance to the glycopeptide antibiotic vancomycin requires five genes. Two of these, vanR and vanS, have sequence homology to cytoplasmic response regulatory (VanR) and transmembrane sensory (VanS) proteins of two-component regulatory systems used to sense and transduce environmental signals. We report the overproduction and purification to homogeneity of VanR (27 kDa) and of a fusion protein of VanS (residues 95-374, the cytosolic domain) to the maltose binding protein (MBP), yielding a MBP-VanS protein of 76 kDa. The MBP-VanS fusion protein displayed an ATP-dependent autophosphorylation on a histidine residue with a rate of 0.17 min-1 and a phosphorylation stoichiometry of 10-15%. 32P-PhosphoMBP-VanS transferred the phosphoryl group to VanR. 32P-Phospho VanR showed chemical stability anticipated for an aspartyl phosphate and was relatively stable to hydrolysis (t1/2 = 10-12 h). Thus, the vancomycin resistance operon appears to have collected and specifically tailored the His kinase and Asp phosphoryl receptor of two-component signal transduction logic for sensing extracellular vancomycin and turning on structural genes, vanA and vanH, to make altered peptidoglycan structures such that vancomycin does not bind.

Lipoxygenases are an important class of non-heme iron enzymes that catalyze the hydroperoxidation of unsaturated fatty acids. The details of the enzymatic mechanism of lipoxygenases are still not well understood. This study utilizes a combination of kinetic and structural probes to relate the lipoxygenase mechanism of action with structural modifications of the iron's second coordination sphere. The second coordination sphere consists of Gln(495) and Gln(697), which form a hydrogen bond network between the substrate cavity and the first coordination sphere (Asn(694)). In this investigation, we compared the kinetic and structural properties of four mutants (Q495E, Q495A, Q697N, and Q697E) with those of wild-type soybean lipoxygenase-1 and determined that changes in the second coordination sphere affected the enzymatic activity by hydrogen bond rearrangement and substrate positioning through interaction with Gln(495). The nature of the C-H bond cleavage event remained unchanged, which demonstrates that the mutations have not affected the mechanism of hydrogen atom tunneling. The unusual and dramatic inverse solvent isotope effect (SIE) observed for the Q697E mutant indicated that an Fe(III)-OH(-) is the active site base. A new transition state model for hydrogen atom abstraction is proposed.

Human reticulocyte 15-lipoxygenase (15-hLO-1) and epithelial 15-lipoxygenase (15-hLO-2) have been implicated in a number of human diseases, with differences in their substrate specificity potentially playing a central role. In the current paper, we present a novel method to accurately measure the substrate specificity of the two 15-hLO isozymes and demonstrate that both cholate and specific LO products affect substrate specificity. The linoleic acid (LA) product, 13-hydroperoxyoctadienoic acid (13-HPODE), changes the [k cat /K m ] AA /[k cat /K m ] LA ratio over 5-fold for 15-hLO-1 and 3-fold for 15-hLO-2, while the arachidonic acid (AA) product, 12-(S)-hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid (12-HPETE), only affects the ratio of 15-hLO-1 (over 5-fold). In addition, the reduced products, 13-(S)-hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid (13-HODE) and 12-(S)-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (12-HETE), also affect substrate specificity, indicating that iron oxidation is not responsible for the change in the [k cat /K m ] AA /[k cat /K m ] LA ratio. These results, coupled with the dependence of the 15-hLO-1, k cat /K m kinetic isotope effect ( D k cat /K m ) on the presence of 12-HPETE and 12-HETE, indicate that the allosteric site, previously identified in 15-hLO-1 [Mogul, R., Johansen, E., Holman, T. R. (1999) Biochemistry 39, 4801-4807], is responsible for the change in substrate specificity. The ability of LO products to regulate substrate specificity may have relevancy to cancer progression and warrants further investigation into the role of this product-feedback loop in the cell.Human lipoxygenases (hLO) are a family of structurally related enzymes that catalyze the hydroperoxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids using molecular oxygen (Scheme 1) (1). There are three main isozymes of pharmacological interest: 5-hLO, 12-hLO and 15-hLO, which are named according to their positional specificity on arachidonic acid (AA), producing their respective hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid (HPETE) products. Each of these lipoxygenase isozymes plays a distinct biological role in human disease; 5-hLO is implicated in asthma (2) and cancer (3,4), 12-hLO is implicated in psoriasis (5) and cancer (4,6,7) and 15-hLO is implicated in atherosclerosis (8) and cancer (4,9).Defining the exact role of LO in human disease is complicated by the incomplete understanding of three fundamental biochemical properties of hLO: substrate specificity, activation specificity and allosteric regulation. With regards to substrate specificity, enzymes are typically highly specific and react with only one particular substrate, such as 5-hLO and platelet 12-hLO, which only react with AA. However, reticulocyte 15-hLO-1 and epithelial 15-hLO-2 react with both LA and AA, albeit with different efficiencies. 15-hLO-1 reacts preferentially $ This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (GM56062 and S10-RR20939 (MS equipment grant)) *To whom the correspondence should be addressed: tholman@chemistry.ucsc.edu. % Current address, KaloBios, 3427 Hillview Ave., Sui...

Disability or death due to intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is attributed to blood lysis, liberation of iron, and consequent oxidative stress. Iron chelators bind to free iron and prevent neuronal death induced by oxidative stress and disability due to ICH, but the mechanisms for this effect remain unclear. We show that the hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase domain (HIF-PHD) family of iron-dependent, oxygen-sensing enzymes are effectors of iron chelation. Molecular reduction of the three HIF-PHD enzyme isoforms in the mouse striatum improved functional recovery after ICH. A low-molecular-weight hydroxyquinoline inhibitor of the HIF-PHD enzymes, adaptaquin, reduced neuronal death and behavioral deficits after ICH in several rodent models without affecting total iron or zinc distribution in the brain. Unexpectedly, protection from oxidative death in vitro or from ICH in vivo by adaptaquin was associated with suppression of activity of the prodeath factor ATF4 rather than activation of an HIF-dependent prosurvival pathway. Together, these findings demonstrate that brain-specific inactivation of the HIF-PHD metalloenzymes with the blood-brain barrier-permeable inhibitor adaptaquin can improve functional outcomes after ICH in several rodent models.