Protein adductomics: A comprehensive analysis of protein modifications by electrophiles

Abstract

Human individuals are continually exposed to various exogenous and endogenous reactive electrophiles, which readily react with nucleophilic biomacromolecules, such as protein, and form a variety of covalent adducts. The covalent modifications of protein are thought to be involved in various physiological and pathological processes. Recently, the "adductome", a new concept that represents the totality of covalent adducts bound to nucleophilic biomolecules, has been offered as a useful technique for characterizing essentially all reactive electrophilic compounds in biological samples. The primary advantage of this approach is that non-targeted comprehensive analysis can readily be extended to investigate covalent adduct pattern of different situation of exposure and thereby makes it possible to detect/identify not only known but also unknown adducts. In this review, we provide a summary of the concept and methodology of protein adductomics, especially focusing on redox protein adductomics.

Keywords: Adductome; Electrophilic aldehydes; Lipid peroxidation; Mass spectrometry; Oxidative stress; Protein chemical modification; Reactive oxygen species.