Analysis of the lifetime and spatial localization of hydrogen peroxide generated in the cytosol using a reduced kinetic model

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) acts as a signaling molecule via its reactions with particular cysteine residues of certain proteins. Determining the roles of direct oxidation by H2O2 versus disulfide exchange reactions (i.e. relay reactions) between oxidized and reduced proteins of different identities is a current focus. Here, we use kinetic modeling to estimate the spatial and temporal localization of H2O2 and its most likely oxidation targets during a sudden increase in H2O2 above the basal level in the cytosol. We updated a previous redox kinetic model with recently measured parameters for HeLa cells and used the model to estimate the length and time scales of H2O2 diffusion through the cytosol before it is consumed by reaction. These estimates were on the order of one micron and one millisecond, respectively. We found oxidation of peroxiredoxin by H2O2 to be the dominant reaction in the network and that the overall concentration of reduced peroxiredoxin is not significantly affected by physiological increases in intracellular H2O2 concentration. We used this information to reduce the model from 22 parameters and reactions and 21 species to a single analytical equation with only one dependent variable, i.e. the concentration of H2O2, and reproduced results from the complete model. The reduced kinetic model will facilitate future efforts to progress beyond estimates and precisely quantify how reactions and diffusion jointly influence the distribution of H2O2 within cells.