Use of Human Serum Albumin Cys34 (HSA-Cys34) Adductomics as a Multidimensional and Integrative Biomarker Approach to Assess Oxidative Stress

Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most abundant protein in plasma, and the redox state of circulating HSA has been used as a biomarker of systemic oxidative stress (OS) for decades. While informative, many traditional biomarkers of OS measure short-lived or downstream products of oxidative damage that offer limited perspectives on the dynamic and integrated processes that govern systemic redox biology within human populations. By moving beyond single-analyte damage markers and towards coordinated patterns of protein modifications, HSA-Cys34 adductomics offers a systems-level approach that simultaneously captures change in multiple layers of OS. Because of its high abundance in plasma and HSA’s unique and highly reactive single free thiol (Cys34), HSA-Cys34 serves as an ideal sentinel target for monitoring reactions with reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), and electrophilic species produced by endogenous metabolism and responses to exogenous chemical exposures. The reaction of HSA with ROS, RNS, and reactive electrophiles yields a diverse array of protein modifications, including direct oxidation products (sulfenic, sulfinic, and sulfonic acid), low molecular weight thiol-disulfide exchange, and lipid peroxidation (LPO)-derived reactive aldehydes. With a mean residence time of about a month, these accumulated adducts serve as an integrated picture of oxidative and electrophilic stress that together function as a molecular record of systemic redox physiology. Previous studies using high-resolution mass spectrometry-based adductomics have enabled global untargeted analysis of HSA-Cys34 modifications, yielding an expansive inventory of novel redox signatures of environmental stressors and disease states. In this paper we review the chemistry and biology underlying OS-related modifications of HSA-Cys34 and highlight the important role of HSA-Cys34 adducts as integrative biomarkers of OS at the interface of molecular biology, exposure assessment, and public health research.