Pharmacological characterization of the seven human NOX isoforms and their inhibitors.

BACKGROUND: NADPH oxidases (NOX) are a family of flavoenzymes that catalyze the formation of superoxide anion radical (O2•-) and/or hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). As major oxidant generators, NOX are associated with oxidative damage in numerous diseases and represent promising drug targets for several pathologies. Various small molecule NOX inhibitors are used in the literature, but their pharmacological characterization is often incomplete in terms of potency, specificity and mode of action. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: We used cell lines expressing high levels of human NOX isoforms (NOX1-5, DUOX1 and 2) to detect NOX-derived O2•- or H2O2 using a variety of specific probes. NOX inhibitory activity of diphenylene iodonium (DPI), apocynin, diapocynin, ebselen, GKT136901 and VAS2870 was tested on NOX isoforms in cellular and membrane assays. Additional assays were used to identify potential off target effects, such as antioxidant activity, interference with assays or acute cytotoxicity. KEY RESULTS: Cells expressing active NOX isoforms formed O2•-, except for DUOX1 and 2, and in all cases activation of NOX isoforms was associated with the detection of extracellular H2O2. Among all molecules tested, DPI elicited dose-dependent inhibition of all isoforms in all assays, however all other molecules tested displayed interesting pharmacological characteristics, but did not meet criteria for bona fide NOX inhibitors. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that experimental results obtained with widely used NOX inhibitors must be carefully interpreted and highlight the challenge of developing reliable pharmacological inhibitors of these key molecular targets.

NOX5 Cell-Free Assay for the High-Throughput Screening of Small Molecules.

NADPH oxidases (NOX) are a family of transmembrane enzymes, which catalyze the formation of O2˙- and H2O2. Membrane fractions of leukocytes are highly enriched in the phagocyte NOX isoform (NOX2). This feat has allowed the development of a complex NOX2 cell-free assay, which has been a key tool for the understanding of the mode of action of NOX2, its biochemistry, pharmacology, and identification of NOX2-specific inhibitors. In addition to NOX2, there are six other NOX isoforms in humans, but cell-free assays of non-phagocytic oxidases are infrequently used, and their specificity has recently been debated. Here we describe a NOX5 cell-free assay. We present a method to purify the membranous component of cells stably transduced with NOX5 and to measure O2˙- in a high-throughput format (96-w or 384-w plates). The experimental description allows high-throughput screening of small molecules with limited cost.