Abstract
Hypochlorous acid (HOCl), a powerful antimicrobial oxidant, is produced by neutrophils to fight infections. Here we show that N-chlorination, induced by HOCl concentrations encountered at sites of inflammation, converts blood plasma proteins into chaperone-like holdases that protect other proteins from aggregation. This chaperone-like conversion was reversible by antioxidants and was abrogated by prior methylation of basic amino acids. Furthermore, reversible N-chlorination of basic amino acid side chains is the major factor that converts plasma proteins into efficient activators of immune cells. Finally, HOCl-modified serum albumin was found to act as a pro-survival molecule that protects neutrophils from cell death induced by highly immunogenic foreign antigens. We propose that activation and enhanced persistence of neutrophils mediated by HOCl-modified plasma proteins, resulting in the increased and prolonged generation of ROS, including HOCl, constitutes a potentially detrimental positive feedback loop that can only be attenuated through the reversible nature of the modification involved.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (LE2905/1-2)
- Lars I Leichert
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Jos WM van der Meer, Radboud University Medical Centre, Netherlands
Publication history
- Received: April 3, 2019
- Accepted: July 11, 2019
- Accepted Manuscript published: July 12, 2019 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: July 23, 2019 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2019, Ulfig et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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