Formation of di-cysteine acrolein adduct decreases cytotoxicity of acrolein by ROS alleviation and apoptosis intervention

  • J Hazard Mater. 2020 Apr 5;387:121686. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121686.
Zhao Yin  1 ,  Kaiyu Jiang  2 ,  Lei Shi  3 ,  Jia Fei  1 ,  Jie Zheng  2 ,  Shiyi Ou  2 ,  Juanying Ou  4
Affiliations
  • 1. College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
  • 2. Department of Food Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
  • 3. Institute of Food Safety & Nutrition, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
  • 4. Institute of Food Safety & Nutrition, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 31780296 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121686
Abstract

Acrolein (ACR) is a toxic contaminant for humans. Our previous research indicated that l-cysteine (Cys) decreased the cytotoxicity of acrolein possibly via adduct formation, but which adduct contributed to the toxicity-lowering effect remains unknown. In this work, we identified a di-cysteine acrolein adduct (ACR-di-Cys) and investigated its toxicity against human bronchial epithelial cell line HBE and colon Cancer cell line Caco-2. ACR-di-Cys tremendously decreased acrolein-induced cytotoxicity via alleviating ROS and Apoptosis intervention. In the condition of no presence of free cysteine, however, this adduct can convert to mono-ACR-Cys in PBS solution by losing a molecule of cysteine conjugated at CC bond. ACR-mono-Cys showed much higher toxicity than ACR-di-Cys, and even higher than acrolein after 48 h exposure. This study indicated that cysteine can react with acrolein to form adducts with different acrolein-detoxifying capacity, and a sufficient intake of cysteine or cysteine-containing proteins can maximize the detoxifying effect for acrolein via the formation of a highly detoxifying agent, ACR-di-Cys.

Keywords
ACR-Cys adduct; Apoptosis; Cytotoxicity; Free cysteine; ROS.
Products