Co-occurrence of Protein Crotonylation and 2-Hydroxyisobutyrylation in the Proteome of End-Stage Renal Disease

[Image: see text] End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is gradually becoming a major public healthcare burden worldwide. Post-translational modifications carrying epigenetic information play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of many chronic diseases. We performed lysine crotonylation (KCr) and lysine 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation (Khib) analyses with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry to obtain a comprehensive profile and reveal the specific pathogenesis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in ESRD patients. 218 overlap proteins among differentially modified proteins (DMPs) of both 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation and crotonylation were identified. KEGG analysis enriched pathways of protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis which is closely related with cell apoptosis. In Bip, a master regulator in the ER, eight sites were identified as having both KCr and Khib modifications. Five differentially KCr modification sites and three differentially Khib-modified sites were detected between ESRD patients and normal controls. Besides Bip, other proteins (GRP94, CNX, CRT, PDIs, GlcII, ERP57, Bap31, Hsp70, and Hsp90) happened both KCr and Khib modifications. Nine DMPs having both KCr and Khib modifications were related to the glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway containing two key regulatory enzymes of hexokinase-1 and pyruvate kinase. The two most abundant dual modification proteins were ENO1 and PGK1 with 15 sites and 8 sites, respectively. Lysine residue K228 with both KCr and Khib modifications in ENO1 was on its surface and made it accessible for p300 mediating dynamic modifications. Overall, we hypothesize that KCr and Khib comodifications may influence the number of immunocytes and further induce immune senescence in ESRD patients through the glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway and protein processing in the ER process, which may be a potential therapeutic direction in the future.