Maintenance of luminal pH and protease activity in lysosomes/late endosomes by vacuolar ATPase in chlorpromazine-treated RAW264 cells accumulating phospholipids.

Cationic amphiphilic drugs (CADs) inhibit phospholipases competitively/uncompetitively. It has also been reported that CADs spontaneously accumulate in acidic organelles and increase their luminal pH, which may lead to deactivation of phospholipid-metabolising enzymes, causing cellular phospholipid accumulation. Recently, however, contradictory results have also been reported in that the luminal pH is not increased by CAD treatment. In this study, we examined whether the lysosomal/late endosomal acidic pH was maintained by vacuolar ATPase (v-ATPase) after treatment with chlorpromazine (CPZ) as a model CAD. The activity of lysosomal protease after CPZ treatment was also measured. Oregon Green-dextran-tetramethylrhodamine conjugate was employed to determine the luminal pH of the lysosomes/late endosomes in RAW264 cells. The luminal pH remained acidic after treatment with CPZ for 23 h, and the lysosomal protease activity was not decreased by 5-min CPZ treatment. Co-treatment with CPZ and bafilomycin A1 (v-ATPase inhibitor) raised the luminal pH. These results suggest that the lysosomal/late endosomal pH is not affected by a 23-h CPZ treatment. In addition, lysosomal enzymes presumably maintain their activity when CPZ accumulates. Our results imply that the pH homeostasis in lysosomes/late endosomes is strictly maintained even after a longer treatment with CADs.