One-electron reduction of 6-hydroxydopamine quinone is essential in 6-hydroxydopamine neurotoxicity.

6-Hydroxydamine has widely been used as neurotoxin in preclinical studies related on the neurodegenerative process of dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson's disease based on its ability to be neurotoxic as a consequence of free radical formation during its auto-oxidation to topaminequinone. We report that 50-µM 6-hydroxydopamine is not neurotoxic in RCSN-3 cells derived from substantia nigra incubated during 24 h contrasting with a significant sixfold increase in cell death (16 ± 2 %; P < 0.001) was observed in RCSN-3NQ7 cells expressing a siRNA against DT-diaphorase that silence the enzyme expression. To observe a significant cell death in RCSN-3 cells induced by 6-hydroxydopamine (24 ± 1 %; P < 0.01), we have to increase the concentration to 250 μm while a 45 ± 2 % cell death (P < 0.001) was observed at this concentration in RCSN-3NQ7 cells. The cell death induced by 6-hydroxydopamine in RCSN-3NQ7 cells was accompanied with a (i) significant increase in oxygen consumption (P < 0.01), (ii) depletion of reduced glutathione and (iii) a significant decrease in ATP level (P < 0.05) in comparison with RCSN-3 cells. In conclusion, our results suggest that one-electron reduction of 6-hydroxydopamine quinone seems to be the main reaction responsible for 6-hydroxydopamine neurotoxic effects in dopaminergic neurons and DT-diaphorase seems to play an important neuroprotective role by preventing one-electron reduction of topaminequinone.