Inhibition of β-oxidation is not a valid therapeutic tool for reducing oxidative stress in conditions of neurodegeneration

According to recent reports, systemic treatment of rats with methylpalmoxirate (carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 inhibitor) decreased peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids in brain tissue. This was taken as evidence of mitochondrial β-oxidation in brain, thereby contradicting long-standing paradigms of cerebral metabolism, which claim that β-oxidation of activated fatty acids has minor importance for brain energy homeostasis. We addressed this controversy. Our experiments are the first direct experimental analysis of this question. We fueled isolated brain mitochondria or rat brain astrocytes with octanoic acid, but octanoic acid does not enhance formation of Reactive Oxygen Species, neither in isolated brain mitochondria nor in astrocytes, even at limited hydrogen delivery to mitochondria. Thus, octanoic acid or l-octanoylcarnitine does not stimulate H₂O₂ release from brain mitochondria fueled with malate, in contrast to liver mitochondria (2.25-fold rise). This does obviously not support the possible occurrence of β-oxidation of the fatty acid octanoate in the brain. We conclude that a proposed inhibition of β-oxidation does not seem to be a helpful strategy for therapies aiming at lowering oxidative stress in cerebral tissue. This question is important, since oxidative stress is the cause of neurodegeneration in numerous neurodegenerative or inflammatory disease situations.

Mitochondria; energy metabolism; inflammation; lipids; neuroprotection.