Patent ID: 7001738

Claim:
A method for screening for potential drugs useful in modulating protein nitrosylation, comprising: contacting a test sample comprising at least one protein substrate with a test compound; treating the test sample with an alkylthiolating agent to block free thiol groups on the protein substrate; reducing nitrosothiol bonds on the protein substrate to form new free thiol groups; removing the alkylthiolating agent from the test sample; reacting the new free thiol groups on the protein substrate with a detectably tagged, activated mixed disulfide, thereby forming detectably tagged protein substrate, wherein the detectably tagged protein substrate indicates that the protein substrate in the test sample was nitrosylated; detecting the detectably tagged protein substrate; and comparing the amount of detectably tagged protein substrate in the test sample to an amount of detectably tagged protein substrate in a control sample similarly treated but not contacted with the test compound, wherein a test compound which increases or decreases the amount of detectably tagged protein substrate in the test sample relative to the control sample is identified as a modulator of protein nitrosylation.