Conjugation of glutathione and other thiols with bioreductively activated mitomycin C. Effect of thiols on the reductive activation rate.

Mitomycin C (MC), a clinically used natural antitumor agent, was shown to form three monoconjugates (11a-13a) and two bisconjugates (14a, 15a) with GSH upon reductive activation by rat liver microsomes, purified NADPH-cytochrome c reductase, or NADH-cytochrome c reductase or chemical reduction using H2/PtO2. Rat liver cytosol/NADH activated MC only at acidic pH (5.8), resulting in the formation of a single GSH-MC monoconjugate, 13a. The reductase responsible for cytosolic activation of MC to form this conjugate was DT-diaphorase. GSH itself did not reduce MC, and unreduced MC did not form conjugates with GSH. A moderate catalytic effect by glutathione S-transferase was demonstrated on the cytosol-activated reaction. Mercaptoethanol and N-acetylcysteine gave analogous sets of five MC-thiol conjugates under cytochrome c reductase or H2/PtO2 activation conditions. The structures of all 15 MC-thiol conjugates (five each with GSH, mercaptoethanol, and N-acetylcysteine, respectively) were determined, using 1H-NMR, UV, and mass spectroscopies, combined with analytical chemical and radiolabeling methods. The mechanism of formation of the conjugates features SN2 displacement of the carbamate of the reduced MC by GS-. The MC-GSH conjugates were noncytotoxic to the tumor cells tested. The conjugation of GSH with activated MC is likely to represent detoxication in mammalian cells. As another effect, GSH accelerates the rate of reduction of MC by "slow" reducing agents such as cytochrome c reductases and H2/PtO2. A mechanism is proposed to explain this effect, which involves further reduction of the initially formed MC semiquinone free radical by GSH.