During the past several years, major advances have been made in understanding how reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS) participate in signal transduction. Identification of the specific targets and the chemical reactions involved still remains to be resolved with many of the signaling pathways in which the involvement of reactive species has been determined. Our understanding is that ROS and RNS have second messenger roles. While cysteine residues in the thiolate (ionized) form found in several classes of signaling proteins can be specific targets for reaction with H 2 O 2 and RNS, better understanding of the chemistry, particularly kinetics, suggests that for many signaling events in which ROS and RNS participate, enzymatic catalysis is more likely to be involved than non-enzymatic reaction. Due to increased interest in how oxidation products, particularly lipid peroxidation products, also are involved with signaling, a review of signaling by 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE) is included. This article focuses on the chemistry of signaling by ROS, RNS, and HNE and will describe reactions with selected target proteins as representatives of the mechanisms rather attempt to comprehensively review the many signaling pathways in which the reactive species are involved. Keywords signaling; glutathione; thioredoxin; oxidants; reactive oxygen species; thiols; peroxide; nitric oxide; peroxynitrite; 4-hydroxynonenal; cysteine; hydrogen peroxide; protein tyrosine phosphatase; reactive nitrogen species; eNOS; iNOS; nNOS; soluble guanylate cyclase; cGMP; tyrosine nitration; fatty acid nitration; NO-heme; NO-metal complexes; nitrite; protein kinase C; ERK; JNK; p38MAPK; tyrosine kinase receptors; calcium
OVERVIEW OF SIGNALING BY REACTIVE SPECIESUnderstanding of the roles of reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS) and the lipid peroxidation product, 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE) in signaling has evolved rapidly during the last decade. This has been markedly helped by identification of the specific targets in signaling pathways. In previous reviews, we defined how ROS, H 2 O 2 in particular,