The drinking water contaminant dibromoacetonitrile delays G1-S transition and suppresses Chk1 activation at broken replication forks

Dibromoacetonitrile induced autophagy by mediating the PERK signalling pathway and ROS interaction in HT22 cell

Dibromoacetonitrile (DBAN) is a high-risk haloacetonitrile (HAN) generated as a byproduct of chloramine disinfection in drinking water. DBAN-induced neurotoxicity in mouse hippocampal neuronal cells (HT22) and mammals was observed to be related to reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS, endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) and autophagy play crucial roles in regulating a variety of cellular processes. However, whether ERS and autophagy are associated with HAN-responsive apoptosis remains unclear. This study indicated that DBAN (10 μM, 24 h) activated the ERS protein kinase like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK) signaling pathway. The ERS inhibitor 4-phenylbutyric acid (4-PBA) reversed DBAN-inhibited cell viability and alleviated DBAN-induced apoptosis in HT22 cell, indicating that activation of the ERS PERK pathway mediates DBAN induced cytotoxicity. Moreover, DBAN activated autophagy. The autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine(3-MA) reversed DBAN-inhibited cell viability and alleviated DBAN-induced apoptosis in HT22 cell, suggesting that autophagy activation mediates DBAN-induced cell toxicity. Notably, the results showed that 4-PBA inhibited DBAN-activated autophagy, demonstrating that ERS-PERK promotes DBAN-induced cellular autophagy. Pretreatment with antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) inhibited the increase in ROS production and the activation of ERS, and protected cells from toxicity. Furthermore, 4-PBA pretreatment reduced the increase in ROS production, indicating that the ROS and PERK promote each other and form a positive feedback loop. ROS also promoted DBAN-induced autophagy. In summary, our findings indicate that DBAN induced autophagy by mediating the PERK signalling pathway and ROS interaction, leading to HT22 cell damage. Accordingly, targeting these pathogenic mechanisms may provide a potential target and theoretical basis for preventing and improving HAN-induced neurotoxicity.

Inhibition of nucleotide excision repair and damage response signaling by dibromoacetonitrile: A novel genotoxicity mechanism of a water disinfection byproduct

Dibromoacetonitrile (DBAN) is a carcinogenic disinfection byproduct (DBP) but how it precipitates cancer is unknown. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a versatile repair mechanism for removing bulky DNA lesions to maintain genome stability, and impairment of this process is associated with cancer development. In this study, we found that DBAN inhibited NER and investigated its mechanism with other DNA damage responses. Human keratinocytes HaCaT were treated with DBAN followed by ultraviolet (UV) as a model inducer of DNA damage, pyrimidine dimers, which require NER for the removal. DBAN pretreatment exacerbated UV-cytotoxicity, and inhibited the repair of pyrimidine dimers. DBAN treatment delayed the recruitment of NER proteins, transcription factor IIH (TFIIH) and xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group G (XPG), to DNA damaged sites, and subsequent gap filling process. Moreover, DBAN suppressed the UV-induced double strand breaks (DSBs) formation, as well as phosphorylated histone H2AX (γ-H2AX), a widely used DNA damage marker. Altogether, DBAN could negatively impact the NER process and phosphorylation pathway responding to DNA damage. This study was the first to identify the inhibition of NER and damage response signaling as a genotoxicity mechanism of a class of DBPs and it may serve as a foundation for DBP carcinogenesis.

Comparative Quantitative Toxicology and QSAR Modeling of the Haloacetonitriles: Forcing Agents of Water Disinfection Byproduct Toxicity

The haloacetonitriles (HANs) is an emerging class of nitrogenous-disinfection byproducts (N-DBPs) present in disinfected drinking, recycled, processed wastewaters, and reuse waters. HANs were identified as primary forcing agents that accounted for DBP-associated toxicity. We evaluated the toxic characteristics of iodoacetonitrile (IAN), bromoacetonitrile (BAN), dibromoacetonitrile (DBAN), bromochloroacetonitrile (BCAN), tribromoacetonitrile (TBAN), chloroacetonitrile (CAN), dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN), trichloroacetonitrile (TCAN), bromodichloroacetonitrile (BDCAN), and chlorodibromoacetonitrile (CDBAN). This research generated the first quantitative, comparative analyses on the mammalian cell cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and thiol reactivity of these HANs. The descending rank order for HAN cytotoxicity was TBAN ≈ DBAN > BAN ≈ IAN > BCAN ≈ CDBAN > BDCAN > DCAN ≈ CAN ≈ TCAN. The rank order for genotoxicity was IAN ≈ TBAN ≈ DBAN > BAN > CDBAN ≈ BDCAN ≈ BCAN ≈ CAN ≈ TCAN ≈ DCAN. The rank order for thiol reactivity was TBAN > BDCAN ≈ CDBAN > DBAN > BCAN > BAN ≈ IAN > TCAN. These toxicity metrics were associated with membrane permeability and chemical reactivity. Based on their physiochemical parameters and toxicity metrics, we developed optimized, robust quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) models for cytotoxicity and for genotoxicity. These models can predict cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of novel HANs prior to analytical biological evaluation.