Acivicin-induced alterations in renal and hepatic glutathione concentrations and in γ-glutamyltransferase activities

Anethole Dithiolethione Increases Glutathione in Kidney by Inhibiting γ-Glutamyltranspeptidase: Biochemical Interpretation and Pharmacological Consequences

Aims

Anethole dithiolethione (ADT) is a marketed drug to treat xerostomia. Its mechanism of action is still unknown, but several preclinical studies indicate that it is able to increase intracellular glutathione (GSH) and protect against oxidative stress. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanisms behind these effects.

Results

Oral treatment of rats confirmed the GSH enhancing properties of ADT; among the different organs examined in this study, only the kidney showed a significant GSH increase that was already observed at low-dose treatments. The increase in GSH correlated with a decrease in γ-glutamyltranspeptidase (γ-GT) activity of the different tissues. In vitro and ex vivo experiments with tubular renal cells and isolated perfused rat kidney showed that the cellular uptake of intact GSH was correlated with the extracellular concentrations of GSH.

Conclusion

s. The prominent in vivopharmacological effect of ADT was a marked increase of GSH concentration in the kidney and a decrease of some systemic and renal biomarkers of oxidative stress. In particular, by inhibition of γ-GT activity, it decreased the production cysteinylglycine, a thiol that has prooxidant effects as the consequence of its autooxidation. The activity of ADT as GSH enhancer in both the circulation and the kidney was long-lasting. All these characteristics make ADT a promising drug to protect the kidney, and in particular proximal tubule cells, from xenobiotic-induced damage.

Mitochondrial Glutathione Transferase Zeta 1 Is Inactivated More Rapidly by Dichloroacetate than the Cytosolic Enzyme in Adult and Juvenile Rat Liver

Dichloroacetate (DCA) has potential for treating mitochondrial disorders and cancer by activating the mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. Repeated dosing of DCA results in reduced drug clearance due to inactivation of glutathione transferase ζ1 (GSTZ1), its metabolizing enzyme. We investigated the time-course of inactivation of GSTZ1 in hepatic cytosol and mitochondria after one oral dose of 100 mg/kg DCA to female Sprague-Dawley rats aged 4 weeks (young) and 52 weeks (adult) as models for children and adults, respectively. GSTZ1 activity with both DCA and an endogenous substrate, maleylacetone (MA), as well as GSTZ1 protein expression were rapidly reduced in cytosol from both ages following DCA treatment. In mitochondria, loss of GSTZ1 protein and activity with DCA were even more rapid. The cytosolic in vivo half-lives of the loss of GSTZ1 activity with DCA were 1.05 ± 0.03 and 0.82 ± 0.02 h (mean ± S.D., n = 6) for young and adult rats, respectively, with inactivation significantly more rapid in adult rats, p < 0.001. The mitochondrial inactivation half-lives were similar in young (0.57 ± 0.02 h) and adult rats (0.54 ± 0.02 h) and were significantly (p < 0.0001) shorter than cytosolic inactivation half-lives. By 24 h after DCA administration, activity and expression remained at 10% or less than control values. The in vitro GSTZ1 inactivation half-lives following incubation with 2 mM DCA in the presence of physiological chloride (Cl^-) concentrations (cytosol = 44 mM, mitochondria = 1-2 mM) exhibited marked differences between subcellular fractions, being 3 times longer in the cytosol than in the mitochondria, regardless of age, suggesting that the lower Cl^- concentration in mitochondria explained the faster degradation of GSTZ1. These results demonstrate for the first time that rat mitochondrial GSTZ1 is more readily inactivated by DCA than cytosolic GSTZ1, and cytosolic GSTZ1 is inactivated more rapidly in adult than young rats.

The novel arsenical darinaparsin is transported by cystine importing systems

Darinaparsin (Dar; ZIO-101; S-dimethylarsino-glutathione) is a promising novel organic arsenical currently undergoing clinical studies in various malignancies. Dar consists of dimethylarsenic conjugated to glutathione (GSH). Dar induces more intracellular arsenic accumulation and more cell death than the FDA-approved arsenic trioxide (ATO) in vitro, but exhibits less systemic toxicity. Here, we propose a mechanism for Dar import that might explain these characteristics. Structural analysis of Dar suggests a putative breakdown product: dimethylarsino-cysteine (DMAC). We show that DMAC is very similar to Dar in terms of intracellular accumulation of arsenic, cell cycle arrest, and cell death. We found that inhibition of γ-glutamyl-transpeptidase (γ-GT) protects human acute promyelocytic leukemia cells (NB4) from Dar, but not from DMAC, suggesting a role for γ-GT in the processing of Dar. Overall, our data support a model where Dar, a GSH S-conjugate, is processed at the cell surface by γ-GT, leading to formation of DMAC, which is imported via xCT, xAG, or potentially other cystine/cysteine importing systems. Further, we propose that Dar induces its own import via increased xCT expression. These mechanisms may explain the enhanced toxicity of Dar toward cancer cells compared with ATO.

Exogenous glutathione can increase glutathione levels in tissues of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) through extracellular breakdown and intracellular synthesis

Glutathione (GSH) is an important intracellular antioxidant involved in numerous cellular pathways. However, little is known about the transport of GSH into fish tissues. To determine whether fish tissues took up GSH by extracellular breakdown and intracellular synthesis or by direct cellular transport, we injected rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) with exogenous GSH along with blockers of GSH breakdown and synthesis. Exogenous GSH increased GSH levels to the greatest degree in the cells of the posterior kidney, followed by the liver. Exogenous GSH inconsistently increased liver GSH levels independent of GSH synthesis, although this may have been due to disruption of gradient-dependent GSH export, and not necessarily to intact uptake of GSH. The cells of the posterior kidney, liver and gill took up GSH by extracellular breakdown and intracellular synthesis. This indicates that, unlike mammalian tissues, normal cellular GSH levels in fish are not sufficient to inhibit additional GSH synthesis. This may lend flexibility to the GSH system in fish, where levels of GSH may rapidly increase in response to an increased supply of amino acids, or during times of high demand, without increasing synthesis enzymes.

Formation and toxicity of anesthetic degradation products

Toxic degradation products are formed from a range of old and modern anesthetic agents. The common element in the formation of degradation products is the reaction of the anesthetic agent with the bases in the carbon dioxide absorbents in the anesthesia circuit. This reaction results in the conversion of trichloroethylene to dichloroacetylene, halothane to 2-bromo-2-chloro-1,1-difluoroethylene, sevoflurane to 2-(fluoromethoxy)-1,1,3,3,3-pentafluoro-1-propene (Compound A), and desflurane, isoflurane, and enflurane to carbon monoxide. Dichloroacetylene, 2-bromo-2-chloro-1,1-difluoroethylene, and Compound A form glutathione S-conjugates that undergo hydrolysis to cysteine S-conjugates and bioactivation of the cysteine S-conjugates by renal cysteine conjugate beta-lyase to give nephrotoxic metabolites. The elucidation of the mechanisms of formation and bioactivation of degradation products has allowed for the safe use of anesthetics that may undergo degradation in the anesthesia circuit.

Role of glutathione in reduction of arsenate and of γ-glutamyltranspeptidase in disposition of arsenite in rats

Arsenate (AsV), the environmentally prevalent form of arsenic, is converted sequentially in the body to arsenite (AsIII), monomethylarsonic acid (MMAsV), monomethylarsonous acid (MMAsIII), and dimethylarsinic acid (DMAsV) and some trimethylated metabolites. Although the biliary excretion of arsenic in rats is known to be glutathione (GSH)-dependent, involving transport of arsenic-GSH conjugates, the role of GSH in the reduction of AsV to the more toxic AsIII in vivo has not been defined. Therefore, we studied how the fate of AsV is influenced by buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), which depletes GSH in tissues. Control and BSO-treated rats were given AsV (50 micromol/kg, i.v.) and arsenic metabolites in bile, urine, blood and tissues were analysed by HPLC-HG-AFS. BSO increased retention of AsV in blood and tissues and decreased appearance of AsIII in blood, bile (by 96%) and urine (by 63%). The biliary excretion of MMAsIII was also nearly abolished, the appearance of MMAsIII and MMAsV in the blood was delayed and the renal concentrations of these monomethylated arsenicals were decreased by BSO. Interestingly, appearance of DMAsV in blood and urine remained unchanged and the concentrations of this metabolite in the kidneys and muscle were even increased in response to BSO. To test the role of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) in arsenic disposition, the effect of the of the GGT inhibitor acivicin was investigated in rats injected with AsIII (50 micromol/kg, i.v.). Acivicin lowered the hepatic and renal GGT activities and increased the biliary as well as urinary excretion of GSH, but failed to alter the disposition (i.e. blood and tissue concentrations, biliary and urinary excretion) of AsIII and its metabolites. In conclusion, shortage of GSH decreases not only the hepatobiliary transport of arsenic, but also reduction of AsV and the formation of monomethylated arsenic, while not hindering the production of dimethylated arsenic. While GSH plays an important role in the disposition and toxicity of arsenic, GGT, which hydrolyses GSH and GSH conjugates, apparently does not influence the fate of the GSH-reactive trivalent arsenicals in rats.

Glutathione‐dependent Bioactivation of Haloalkanes and Haloalkenes

Haloalkanes and haloalkenes constitute an important group of widely used chemicals that have the potential to induce toxicity and cancer. The toxicity of haloalkanes and haloalkenes may be associated with cytochromes P450- or glutathione transferase-dependent bioactivation. This review is concerned with the glutathione- and glutathione transferase-dependent bioactivation of dihalomethanes, 1,2-dihaloalkanes, and haloalkenes. Dihalomethanes, e.g., dichloromethane, and 1,2-dihaloethanes, e.g., 1,2-dichloroethane and 1,2-dibromoethane, undergo glutathione transferase-catalyzed bioactivation to give S-(halomethyl)glutathione or glutathione episulfonium ions, respectively, as reactive intermediates. Haloalkenes, e.g., trichloroethene, hexachlorobutadiene, chlorotrifluoroethene, and tetrafluoroethene, undergo cysteine conjugate beta-lyase-dependent bioactivation to thioacylating intermediates, including thioacyl halides, thioketenes, and 2,2,3-trihalothiiranes. With all of these compounds, the formation of reactive intermediates is associated with their observed toxicity.