Dynamic disulfide exchange in a crystallin protein in the human eye lens promotes cataract-associated aggregation

Increased light scattering in the eye lens due to aggregation of the long-lived lens proteins, crystallins, is the cause of cataract disease. Several mutations in the gene encoding human D-crystallin (HD) cause misfolding and aggregation. Cataract-associated substitutions at Trp(42) cause the protein to aggregate in vitro from a partially unfolded intermediate locked by an internal disulfide bridge, and proteomic evidence suggests a similar aggregation precursor is involved in age-onset cataract. Surprisingly, WT HD can promote aggregation of the W42Q variant while itself remaining soluble. Here, a search for a biochemical mechanism for this interaction has revealed a previously unknown oxidoreductase activity in HD. Using in vitro oxidation, mutational analysis, cysteine labeling, and MS, we have assigned this activity to a redox-active internal disulfide bond that is dynamically exchanged among HD molecules. The W42Q variant acts as a disulfide sink, reducing oxidized WT and forming a distinct internal disulfide that kinetically traps the aggregation-prone intermediate. Our findings suggest a redox hot potato competition among WT and mutant or modified polypeptides wherein variants with the lowest kinetic stability are trapped in aggregation-prone intermediate states upon accepting disulfides from more stable variants. Such reactions may occur in other long-lived proteins that function in oxidizing environments. In these cases, aggregation may be forestalled by inhibiting disulfide flow toward mutant or damaged polypeptides.