Inhibition of methionine sulfoxide reduction by dimethyl sulfoxide.

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is widely used in chemistry and biology as a solvent and as a cryoprotectant. It is also used as a pharmaceutical agent for the treatment of interstitial cystitis and rheumatoid arthritis. Previous reports described DMSO as being reduced by methionine-S-sulfoxide reductase (MsrA). However, little is known about the DMSO reduction capability of methionine-R-sulfoxide reductase (MsrB) or its effect on the catalysis of methionine sulfoxide reduction. We show that mammalian MsrB2 and MsrB3 were unable to reduce DMSO. This compound inhibited MsrB2 activity but did not inhibit MsrB3 activity. We further determined that DMSO functions as an inhibitor of MsrA and MsrB2 in the reduction of methionine sulfoxides via different inhibition mechanisms. DMSO competitively inhibited MsrA activity but acted as a non-competitive inhibitor of MsrB2 activity. Our study also demonstrated that DMSO inhibits in vivo methionine sulfoxide reduction in yeast and mammalian cells. [BMB reports 2009; 42(9): 580-585].