SDHi fungicides: An example of mitotoxic pesticides targeting the succinate dehydrogenase complex.

Succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors (SDHi) are fungicides used to control the proliferation of pathogenic fungi in crops. Their mode of action is based on blocking the activity of succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), a universal enzyme expressed by all species harboring mitochondria. The SDH is involved in two interconnected metabolic processes for energy production: the transfer of electrons in the mitochondrial respiratory chain and the oxidation of succinate to fumarate in the Krebs cycle. In humans, inherited SDH deficiencies may cause major pathologies including encephalopathies and cancers. The cellular and molecular mechanisms related to such genetic inactivation have been well described in neuroendocrine tumors, in which it induces an oxidative stress, a pseudohypoxic phenotype, a metabolic, epigenetic and transcriptomic remodeling, and alterations in the migration and invasion capacities of cancer cells, in connection with the accumulation of succinate, an oncometabolite, substrate of the SDH. We will discuss recent studies reporting toxic effects of SDHi in non-target organisms and their implications for risk assessment of pesticides. Recent data show that the SDH structure is highly conserved during evolution and that SDHi can inhibit SDH activity in mitochondria of non-target species, including humans. These observations suggest that SDHi are not specific inhibitors of fungal SDH. We hypothesize that SDHi could have toxic effects in other species, including humans. Moreover, the analysis of regulatory assessment reports shows that most SDHi induce tumors in animals without evidence of genotoxicity. Thus, these substances could have a non-genotoxic mechanism of carcinogenicity that still needs to be fully characterized and that could be related to SDH inhibition. The use of pesticides targeting mitochondrial enzymes encoded by tumor suppressor genes raises questions on the risk assessment framework of mitotoxic pesticides. The issue of SDHi fungicides is therefore a textbook case that highlights the urgent need for changes in regulatory assessment.

Mitochondrial Dysfunction as a Hallmark of Environmental Injury.

Environmental factors including diet, sedentary lifestyle and exposure to pollutants largely influence human health throughout life. Cellular and molecular events triggered by an exposure to environmental pollutants are extremely variable and depend on the age, the chronicity and the doses of exposure. Only a fraction of all relevant mechanisms involved in the onset and progression of pathologies in response to toxicants has probably been identified. Mitochondria are central hubs of metabolic and cell signaling responsible for a large variety of biochemical processes, including oxidative stress, metabolite production, energy transduction, hormone synthesis, and apoptosis. Growing evidence highlights mitochondrial dysfunction as a major hallmark of environmental insults. Here, we present mitochondria as crucial organelles for healthy metabolic homeostasis and whose dysfunction induces critical adverse effects. Then, we review the multiple mechanisms of action of pollutants causing mitochondrial toxicity in link with chronic diseases. We propose the Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) as a model of "exposome receptor", whose activation by environmental pollutants leads to various toxic events through mitochondrial dysfunction. Finally, we provide some remarks related to mitotoxicity and risk assessment.

Versicolorin A, a precursor in aflatoxins biosynthesis, is a food contaminant toxic for human intestinal cells.

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is the most potent carcinogen among mycotoxins. Its biosynthesis involves the formation of versicolorin A (VerA), whose chemical structure shares many features with AFB1. Our data revealed significant levels of VerA in foodstuff from Central Asia and Africa. Given this emerging food risk, it was of prime interest to compare the toxic effects of the two mycotoxins against cells originating from the intestinal tract. We used human colon cell lines (Caco-2, HCT116) to investigate the cytotoxic process induced by the two mycotoxins. Contrary to AFB1, a low dose of VerA (1 µM) disturbed the expression level of thousands of genes (18 002 genes). We show that the cytotoxic effects of low doses of VerA (1-20 µM) were stronger than the same low doses of AFB1 in both Caco-2 and HCT116 cell lines. In Caco-2 cells, VerA induced DNA strand breaks that led to apoptosis and reduced DNA replication of dividing cells, consequently inhibiting cell proliferation. Although VerA was able to induce the p53 signaling pathway in p53 wild-type HCT116 cells, its toxicity process did not mainly rely on p53 expression since similar cytotoxic effects were also observed in HCT116 cells that do not express p53. In conclusion, this study provides evidence of the risk of food contamination by VerA and shed light on its toxicological effect on human colon cells.