N-acetylcysteine elicited increase in cytochrome c oxidase activity in mice synaptic mitochondria.

It has been suggested that thiolic groups are essential for cytochrome c oxidase (COX) activity and other respiratory mitochondrial enzymes. Recent experiments showed that the thiolic antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) can protect against age-related impairment in COX activity in mice hepatic mitochondria. The present paper shows that NAC enhances COX activity in vitro in synaptic mitochondria isolated from young and old mice. The optimum NAC concentration for maximum COX activity was 5 mM in young and 10 mM in old synaptic preparations. Our data suggest that mitochondrial thiolic groups, which are essentials to oxidative phosphorylation, are impaired by aging.