S-Nitrosylation is a redox-based post-translational modification of a protein in response to nitric oxide (NO) signaling, and it participates in a variety of processes in diverse biological systems. The significance of this type of protein modification in health and diseases is increasingly recognized. In the central nervous system, aberrant S-nitrosylation, due to excessive NO production, is known to cause protein misfolding, mitochondrial dysfunction, transcriptional dysregulation, and neuronal death. This leads to an altered physiological state and consequently contributes to pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders. To date, much effort has been made to understand the mechanisms underlying protein S-nitrosylation, and several approaches have been developed to unveil S-nitrosylated proteins from different organisms. Interest in determining the dynamic changes of protein S-nitrosylation under different physiological and pathophysiological conditions has underscored the need for the development of quantitative proteomic approaches. Currently, both gel-based and gel-free mass spectrometry-based quantitative methods are widely used, and they each have advantages and disadvantages but may also be used together to produce complementary data. This review evaluates current available quantitative proteomic techniques for the analysis of protein S-nitrosylation and highlights recent advances, with emphasis on applications in neurodegenerative diseases. An important goal is to provide a comprehensive guide of feasible quantitative proteomic methodologies for examining protein S-nitrosylation in research to yield insights into disease mechanisms, diagnostic biomarkers, and drug discovery.
Keywords: S-nitrosylation; neurodegenerative diseases; nitric oxide; quantitative proteomics.