Prevention of Peroxidation of Cardiolipin Liposomes by Quinol-Based Antioxidants

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A. V. Lokhmatikov^1,2, N. E. Voskoboynikova¹, D. A. Cherepanov³, N. V. Sumbatyan⁴, G. A. Korshunova⁵, M. V. Skulachev⁶, H.-J. Steinhoff¹, V. P. Skulachev^2,5, and A. Y. Mulkidjanian^1,2,5*

¹School of Physics, University of Osnabruck, D-49069 Osnabruck, Germany; E-mail: amulkid@uni-osnabrueck.de

²School of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia

³Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky pr. 31, 119991 Moscow, Russia

⁴School of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia

⁵Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia

⁶Institute of Mitoengineering, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received March 11, 2014; Revision received May 28, 2014

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In mammalian mitochondria, cardiolipin molecules are the primary targets of oxidation by reactive oxygen species. The interaction of oxidized cardiolipin molecules with the constituents of the apoptotic cascade may lead to cell death. In the present study, we compared the effects of quinol-containing synthetic and natural amphiphilic antioxidants on cardiolipin peroxidation in a model system (liposomes of bovine cardiolipin). We found that both natural ubiquinol and synthetic antioxidants, even being introduced in micro- and submicromolar concentrations, fully protected the liposomal cardiolipin from peroxidation. The duration of their action, however, varied; it increased with the presence of either methoxy groups of ubiquinol or additional reduced redox groups (in the cases of rhodamine and berberine derivates). The concentration of ubiquinol in the mitochondrial membrane substantially exceeds the concentrations of antioxidants we used and would seem to fully prevent peroxidation of membrane cardiolipin. In fact, this does not happen: cardiolipin in mitochondria is oxidized, and this process can be blocked by amphiphilic cationic antioxidants (Y. N. Antonenko et al. (2008) Biochemistry (Moscow), 73, 1273-1287). We suppose that a fraction of mitochondrial cardiolipin could not be protected by natural ubiquinol; in vivo, peroxidation most likely threatens those cardiolipin molecules that, being bound within complexes of membrane proteins, are inaccessible to the bulky hydrophobic ubiquinol molecules diffusing in the lipid bilayer of the inner mitochondrial membrane. The ability to protect these occluded cardiolipin molecules from peroxidation may explain the beneficial therapeutic action of cationic antioxidants, which accumulate electrophoretically within mitochondria under the action of membrane potential.

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KEY WORDS: apoptosis, respiratory supercomplexes, reactive oxygen species, penetrating cations, plastoquinol, SkQ1

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297914100101

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