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The role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the metabolic reprogramming of cells adapted to hypoxia and the interplay between ROS and hypoxia in malignancy is under debate. Here, we examined how ROS levels are modulated by hypoxia in human cancer compared to untransformed cells. Short time exposure (20 min) of either fibroblasts or 143B osteosarcoma cells to low oxygen tension down to 0.5% induced a significant decrease of the cellular ROS level, as detected by the CellROX fluorescent probe (&minus, 70%). Prolonging the cells&rsquo, exposure to hypoxia for 24 h, ROS decreased further, reaching nearly 20% of the normoxic value. In this regard, due to the debated role of the endogenous inhibitor protein (IF1) of the ATP synthase complex in cancer cell bioenergetics, we investigated whether IF1 is involved in the control of ROS generation under severe hypoxic conditions. A significant ROS content decrease was observed in hypoxia in both IF1-expressing and IF1- silenced cells compared to normoxia. However, IF1-silenced cells showed higher ROS levels compared to IF1-containing cells. In addition, the MitoSOX Red-measured superoxide level of all the hypoxic cells was significantly lower compared to normoxia, however, the decrease was milder than the marked drop of ROS content. Accordingly, the difference between IF1-expressing and IF1-silenced cells was smaller but significant in both normoxia and hypoxia. In conclusion, the interplay between ROS and hypoxia and its modulation by IF1 have to be taken into account to develop therapeutic strategies against cancer.

Au2phen ((2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline)2Au2(µ-O)2)(PF6)2 and Auoxo6 ((6,6′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine)2Au2(µ-O)2)(PF6)2 are two structurally related gold(III) complexes that were previously reported to display relevant and promising anticancer properties in vitro toward a large number of human cancer cell lines. To expand the knowledge on the molecular mechanisms through which these gold(III) complexes trigger apoptosis in cancer cells, further studies have been performed using A2780 ovarian cancer cells as reference models. For comparative purposes, parallel studies were carried out on the gold(III) complex AuL12 (dibromo(ethylsarcosinedithiocarbamate)gold(III)), whose proapoptotic profile had been earlier characterized in several cancer cell lines. Our results pointed out that all these gold(III) compounds manifest a significant degree of similarity in their cellular and proapoptotic effects, the main observed perturbations consist of potent thioredoxin reductase inhibition, disruption of the cell redox balance, impairment of the mitochondrial membrane potential, and induction of associated metabolic changes. In addition, evidence was gained of the remarkable contribution of ASK1 (apoptosis-signal-regulating kinase-1) and AKT pathways to gold(III)-induced apoptotic signaling. Overall, the observed effects may be traced back to gold(III) reduction and subsequent formation and release of gold(I) species that are able to bind and inhibit several enzymes responsible for the intracellular redox homeostasis, in particular the selenoenzyme thioredoxin reductase.

The imbalance between the reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen (RNS) species production and their handling by the antioxidant machinery (low molecular weight antioxidant molecules and antioxidant enzymes), also known as oxidative stress, is a condition caused by physiological and pathological processes. Moreover, oxidative stress may be due to an overproduction of free radicals during physical exercise. Excess of radical species leads to the modification of molecules, such as proteins - the most susceptible to oxidative modification - lipids and DNA. With regard to the oxidation of proteins, carbonylation is an oxidative modification that has been widely described. Several studies have detected changes in the total amount of protein carbonyls following different types of physical exercise, but only few of these identified the specific amino acidic residues targets of such oxidation. In this respect, proteomic approaches allow to identify the proteins susceptible to carbonylation and in many cases, it is also possible to identify the specific protein carbonylation sites. This review focuses on the role of protein oxidation, and specifically carbonyl formation, for plasma and skeletal muscle proteins, following different types of physical exercise performed at different intensities. Furthermore, we focused on the proteomic strategies used to identify the specific protein targets of carbonylation. Overall, our analysis suggests that regular physical activity promotes a protection against protein carbonylation, due to the activation of the antioxidant defence or of the turnover of protein carbonyls. However, we can conclude that from the comprehensive bibliography analysed, there is no clearly defined specific physiological role about this post-translational modification of proteins.

Aging is characterized by a progressive decline in the physiological function due to the gradual alteration of molecules, cells and tissues. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are the by-product of aerobic metabolism, and their increase is physiologically counteracted by the activation of the antioxidant machinery. A typical hallmark of aging is the imbalance of such equilibrium, due to either an increase of the amount of radicals or a failure of the antioxidant system. Literature reports that physical exercise is able to restore and maintain the homeostasis of oxidants and antioxidants during aging. Recently, growing interest has been turned to functional fitness, a special physical activity aimed to enhance the ability to perform everyday tasks, such as dressing, climbing stairs and preparing meals. The aim of this work was to assess whether a 24 weeks-functional fitness program carried out on 28 elderly participants (57-86 years old) could be able to improve their oxidative status. For this purpose, dROMs (diacron Reactive Oxygen Metabolites) and BAP (Biological Antioxidant Potential) were analysed at the beginning and at the end of the study. Furthermore, both plasma and saliva protein carbonylation levels were explored through proteomics analysis.

The ubiquitously expressed ATPase inhibitory factor 1 (IF1) is a mitochondrial protein that blocks the reversal of the F1Fo-ATPsynthase, preventing dissipation of cellular ATP and ischemic damage. IF1 suppresses programmed cell death, enhancing tumor invasion and chemoresistance, and is expressed in various types of human cancers. In this study, we examined its effect on mitochondrial redox balance and apoptotic cristae remodeling, finding that, by maintaining ATP levels, IF1 reduces glutathione (GSH) consumption and inactivation of peroxiredoxin 3 (Prx3) during apoptosis. This correlates with inhibition of metallopeptidase OMA1-mediated processing of the pro-fusion dynamin-related protein optic atrophy 1 (OPA1). Stabilization of OPA1 impedes cristae remodeling and completion of apoptosis. Taken together, these data suggest that IF1 acts on both mitochondrial bioenergetics and structure, is involved in mitochondrial signaling in tumor cells, and may underlie their proliferative capacity.

We have previously demonstrated that cells adapt to hypoxia using different metabolic reprogramming mechanisms depending on metabolism. We now investigate how the different adapting mechanisms affect reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, and how ROS levels and cellular metabolism are linked. We show that when skin fibroblasts grew under short-term hypoxia (1% oxygen tension) ROS level markedly decreased (-50%) whatever substrate was available to the cells. Indeed, cellular ROS level linearly and directly decreased with oxygen tension. However, these relationships cannot explain the progressive ROS level decrease observed after prolonged cells hypoxia exposure. In glucose-enriched medium reduced mitochondrial mass and greater fragmentation are observed, both clear-cut indications of mitophagy suggesting that this is responsible for cellular ROS level decrease. Otherwise, in glucose-free medium exposure to prolonged hypoxia resulted in only minor mass reduction, but significantly enhanced expression of antioxidant enzymes. Interestingly, cellular ROS levels were lower in glucose-free compared to glucose-enriched medium under either normoxic or hypoxic conditions. Taken together, these findings reveal that in primary human fibroblasts hypoxia induces a decline in ROS and that different metabolism-dependent mechanisms contribute it, besides the major oxygen concentration decrease. In addition, the present data support the notion that metabolisms generating fewer ROS are associated with lower HIF-1α stabilization.

The bioenergetics of IF1 transiently silenced cancer cells has been extensively investigated, but the role of IF1 (the natural inhibitor protein of F1F0-ATPase) in cancer cell metabolism is still uncertain. To shed light on this issue, we established a method to prepare stably IF1-silenced human osteosarcoma clones and explored the bioenergetics of IF1 null cancer cells. We showed that IF1-silenced cells proliferate normally, consume glucose, and release lactate as controls do, and contain a normal steady-state ATP level. However, IF1-silenced cells displayed an enhanced steady-state mitochondrial membrane potential and consistently showed a reduced ADP-stimulated respiration rate. In the parental cells (i.e. control cells containing IF1) the inhibitor protein was found to be associated with the dimeric form of the ATP synthase complex, therefore we propose that the interaction of IF1 with the complex either directly, by increasing the catalytic activity of the enzyme, or indirectly, by improving the structure of mitochondrial cristae, can increase the oxidative phosphorylation rate in osteosarcoma cells grown under normoxic conditions.