title: Cellular thiol pools are responsible for sequestration of cytotoxic reactive aldehydes: central role of free cysteine and cysteamine.
abstract: Cellular thiol pools have been shown to be important in the regulation of the redox status of cells, providing a large antioxidant pool consisting of free thiols, thiols bound in the disulfide form and thiols bound to proteins. However, experimental studies with the thiol cysteamine and its disulfide cystamine have demonstrated dramatic cytoprotection in experimental models where antioxidants provide only minor protection. These data suggest that an alternate action of thiols is important in their cytoprotective actions. A common feature of the in vitro and in vivo models, where these thiol agents demonstrate cytoprotection, is the generation of cytotoxic aldehydes. We therefore studied the actions of cystamine, cysteamine and several reference thiol agents as cytoprotectants against cell death induced by increased "aldehyde load". We found that all the thiol agents examined provided dramatic protection against aldehyde-induced cell death in SN56 cholinergic neurons, under conditions in which acrolein induced 100% cell death. With regard to mechanism of action, the reference thiols cysteine, N-acetylcysteine, 2-mercaptoethanesulfonic acid, mercapto-propionyglycine, and cysteamine can directly sequester aldehydes. In addition, these thiols were all found to augment intracellular cysteine levels via disulfide interchange reactions. Cysteamine and cystamine also augmented basal intracellular cysteamine levels. Our data, for the first time, demonstrate the importance of intracellular thiols in sequestering toxic reactive aldehyde products of lipid peroxidation and polyamine metabolism. In addition it appears that pharmacological manipulation of intracellular thiol pools might offer a new approach in the design of neuroprotective drug candidates.
authors.affiliation: The Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Northwestern University, 1801 Maple Ave., Suite 4306, Evanston, IL 60201, USA. p-wood@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Paul L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: M Amin
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Joseph R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Moskal
mesh_terms: D000447:Aldehydes / Q000633:toxicity*; D000818:Animals; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects; D002460:Cell Line; D003543:Cysteamine / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D003545:Cysteine / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D004347:Drug Interactions; D045604:Extracellular Fluid / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D020665:Septum of Brain / Q000166:cytology; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds / Q000378:metabolism*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000447:Aldehydes; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds; D003543:Cysteamine; D003545:Cysteine