thapsigargin and pyrrophenone

Cytosolic phospholipase A2α (cPLA2α) mediates agonist-induced release of arachidonic acid from membrane phospholipid for production of eicosanoids. The activation of cPLA2α involves increases in intracellular calcium, which binds to the C2 domain and promotes cPLA2α translocation from the cytosol to membrane to access substrate. The cell permeable pyrrolidine-containing cPLA2α inhibitors including pyrrophenone have been useful to understand cPLA2α function. Although this serine hydrolase inhibitor does not inhibit other PLA2s or downstream enzymes that metabolize arachidonic acid, we reported that it blocks increases in mitochondrial calcium and cell death in lung fibroblasts. In this study we used the calcium indicators G-CEPIA1er and CEPIA2mt to compare the effect of pyrrophenone in regulating calcium levels in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria in response to A23187 and receptor stimulation. Pyrrophenone blocked calcium release from the ER and concomitant increases in mitochondrial calcium in response to stimulation by ATP, serum and A23187. In contrast, ER calcium release induced by the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase inhibitor thapsigargin was not blocked by pyrrophenone suggesting specificity for the calcium release pathway. As a consequence of blocking calcium mobilization, pyrrophenone inhibited serum-stimulated translocation of the cPLA2α C2 domain to Golgi. The ability of pyrrophenone to block ER calcium release is an off-target effect since it occurs in fibroblasts lacking cPLA2α. The results implicate a serine hydrolase in regulating ER calcium release and highlight the importance of careful dose-response studies with pyrrophenone to study cPLA2α function.

Topics: Adenosine Triphosphate; Animals; Calcimycin; Calcium; Calcium Ionophores; Cells, Cultured; Culture Media; Endoplasmic Reticulum; Enzyme Inhibitors; Fibroblasts; Golgi Apparatus; Group IV Phospholipases A2; Lung; Mice, Knockout; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Mitochondria; Protein Transport; Pyrrolidines; Serum; Thapsigargin; Time-Lapse Imaging

Perturbation of calcium signaling that occurs during cell injury and disease, promotes cell death. In mouse lung fibroblasts A23187 triggered mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) formation, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, and necrotic cell death that were blocked by cyclosporin A (CsA) and EGTA. LDH release temporally correlated with arachidonic acid release but did not involve cytosolic phospholipase A2α (cPLA2α) or calcium-independent PLA2. Surprisingly, release of arachidonic acid and LDH from cPLA2α-deficient fibroblasts was inhibited by the cPLA2α inhibitor pyrrophenone, and another serine hydrolase inhibitor KT195, by preventing mitochondrial calcium uptake. Inhibitors of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II, a mitochondrial Ca(2+) uniporter (MCU) regulator, also prevented MPTP formation and arachidonic acid release induced by A23187 and H2O2. Pyrrophenone blocked MCU-mediated mitochondrial calcium uptake in permeabilized fibroblasts but not in isolated mitochondria. Unlike pyrrophenone, the diacylglycerol analog 1-oleoyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycerol and CsA blocked cell death and arachidonic acid release not by preventing mitochondrial calcium uptake but by inhibiting MPTP formation. In fibroblasts stimulated with thapsigargin, which induces MPTP formation by a direct effect on mitochondria, LDH and arachidonic acid release were blocked by CsA and 1-oleoyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycerol but not by pyrrophenone or EGTA. Therefore serine hydrolase inhibitors prevent necrotic cell death by blocking mitochondrial calcium uptake but not the enzyme releasing fatty acids that occurs by a novel pathway during MPTP formation. This work reveals the potential for development of small molecule cell-permeable serine hydrolase inhibitors that block MCU-mediated mitochondrial calcium overload, MPTP formation, and necrotic cell death.

Topics: Animals; Arachidonic Acid; Calcium; Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase Type 2; Cell Line, Transformed; Chelating Agents; Cyclosporine; Diglycerides; Egtazic Acid; Fibroblasts; Group IV Phospholipases A2; Isoenzymes; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase; Mice; Mice, Knockout; Mitochondria; Mitochondrial Membrane Transport Proteins; Mitochondrial Permeability Transition Pore; Necrosis; Phospholipase A2 Inhibitors; Pyrrolidines; Thapsigargin