Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) with 1,2-unsaturated necine base are hepatotoxic phytotoxins. Acute PA intoxication is initiated by the formation of adducts between PA-derived reactive pyrrolic metabolites with cellular proteins. The present study aimed to investigate the correlation between the formation of hepatic pyrrole-protein adducts and occurrence of PA-induced liver injury (PA-ILI), and to further explore the use of such adducts for rapidly screening the hepatotoxic potency of natural products which contain PAs. Aqueous extracts of Crotalaria sessiliflora (containing one PA: monocrotaline) and Gynura japonica (containing two PAs: senecionine and seneciphylline) were orally administered to rats at different doses for 24 h to investigate PA-ILI. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity, hepatic glutathione (GSH) level, and liver histological changes of the treated rats were evaluated to assess the severity of PA-ILI. The levels of pyrrole-protein adducts formed in the rats' livers were determined by a well-established spectrophotometric method. The biological and histological results showed a dose-dependent hepatotoxicity with significantly different toxic severity among groups of rats treated with herbal extracts containing different PAs. Both serum ALT activity and the amount of hepatic pyrrole-protein adducts increased in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, the elevation of ALT activity correlated well with the formation of hepatic pyrrole-protein adducts, regardless of the structures of different PAs. The findings revealed that the formation of hepatic pyrrole-protein adducts-which directly correlated with the elevation of serum ALT activity-was a common insult leading to PA-ILI, suggesting a potential for using pyrrole-protein adducts to screen hepatotoxicity and rank PA-containing natural products, which generally contain multiple PAs with different structures.
Keywords: Crotalaria sessiliflora; Gynura japonica; pyrrole–protein adducts; pyrrolizidine alkaloid-containing herbs; pyrrolizidine alkaloids; toxicity screening and ranking.