Investigation of aldehyde oxidase and xanthine oxidoreductase in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Molybdo-flavoenzymes (MFEs), aldehyde oxidase (AOX) and xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR) are involved in the oxidation of N-heterocyclic compounds and aldehydes, many of which are environmental pollutants, drugs and vitamins. This biotransformation generally generates more polar compounds that are more easily excreted, thus MFEs have been classed as detoxication enzymes.

To date there has been scant study of the properties, substrate and inhibitor specificities of MFEs in non-mammalian vertebrate organisms. This investigation focuses on MFEs in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) as it belongs to a class of fish that host a single AOX (AOXβ) and one XOR.

In this study the substrate specificity of rainbow trout liver AOX and XOR was investigated using HPLC and spectrophotometric assays. AOX in hepatic cytosol was found to be able to catalyse the oxidation of azanaphthalenes belonging to a group of compounds that are environmental pollutants such as phenanthridine, phthalazine and cinchonine. In addition, xenobiotic aromatic aldehydes (vanillin and dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde) and drugs such as allopurinol and pyrazinamide were substrates. Several endogenous vitamins including pyridoxal (vitamin B6), all-trans retinal (vitamin A) and N1-methylnicotinamide were also biotransformed by the rainbow trout AOX. In contrast to liver no AOX activity was detectable in kidney and gill tissue. XOR activity in rainbow trout liver was measurable with the endogenous purine xanthine, purine drug metabolites (1-methylxanthine and 6-thioxanthine) and N-heterocyclic drugs (allopurinol and pyrazinamide). Unlike mammalian XOR that can utilise both NAD+ and O2 as electron acceptors, trout XOR was exclusively NAD+-dependent with no activity being detected with O2.

Eadie-Hofstee plots were using to determine the Km and Vmax of rainbow trout AOX and XOR with different substrates and it was found the Vmax of the rainbow trout enzymes were generally lower and Km generally higher than mammalian AOX and XOR.

Inhibitors of mammalian AOX were tested to determine if they could interact with the piscine AOX. Environmental pollutants (17α-ethinyl estradiol and phenanthridine), an endogenous steroid (estradiol) and drugs (chlorpromazine and menadione) were found to be effective inhibitors and were classed as competitive, non-competitive and uncompetitive respectively using Lineweaver-Burk plots. The drug metabolite, oxipurinol, was a non-competitive inhibitor of rainbow trout XOR.

In order to further characterise trout AOX protein purification was carried out. In contrast to mammalian AOX, the piscine enzyme was not thermotolerant at 55°C nor was it inhibited by benzamidine, thus heat treatment and affinity chromatography could not be used as a purification steps. Trout AOX was purified 210-fold using ammonium sulphate fractionation, together with ion exchange and gel filtration chromatography. The native molecular mass of the piscine AOX was 295 kDa, which is similar to mammalian AOXs.

In conclusion this study yields new insight into groups of anthropogenic environmental pollutants, drugs and vitamins that are substrates and inhibitors of an ancestral vertebrate AOX. The toxicological relevance of these findings is discussed.