Acetaminophen overdose is the most often cause of acute liver injury. The toxic mechanism is linked to formation of an active metabolite that reacts with glutathione generating acetaminophen-glutathione conjugate (APAP-SG). This compound has been recognized to be non-toxic generally. Our preliminary results showed, however, that APAP-SG could possess a toxic effect too. Therefore, the aim of our study was to prepare, purify and to test possible toxicity of APAP-SG. We prepared APAP-SG using organic synthesis. The conjugate was purified by preparative HPLC and its structure was confirmed using mass spectrometry. Final purity of APAP-SG was >98 %. We estimated a toxic effect of APAP-SG in isolated rat liver mitochondria using a fluorescent ROS probe. We assessed ROS production in presence of complex I or complex II substrates. The increase of ROS-dependent fluorescence in presence of glutamate/malate was 104 ± 13 % and 130 ± 10 % in 1 mM and 5 mM APAP-SG, respectively, in comparison with controls. ROS production related to presence of complex II substrate was enhanced 4-times in APAP-SG (5 mM) treated mitochondria (compared to controls). We conclude, we proved our hypothesis that APAP-SG conjugate is able to induce a mitochondrial impairment leading to enhanced ROS production.

Department of Biological and Biochemical Sciences Faculty of Chemical Technology University of Pardubice Pardubice Czech Republic

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