Host: The Japanese Society of Toxicology
Airborne quinones are produced during incomplete combustion of gasoline and photooxidation in the atmosphere. While such reactive species are found to covalently bind protein nucleophiles in cells, the extracellular regulation is not understood. Here we found that airborne quinones such as 1,2-naphthoquinone are readily trapped by cysteine released from A431 cells, leading to the cysteine adducts formation, thereby repressing covalent modification of the cellular proteins. Our finding therefore provides a concept that there is existence of “the Phase-zero reaction” for airborne electrophiles prior to the uptake of cells.
