Effects of Chrysin and Chrysin-7-sulfate on Ochratoxin A-Albumin Interactions and on the Plasma and Kidney Levels of the Mycotoxin in Rats

Miklós Poór; Ágnes Dombi; Eszter Fliszár-Nyúl; Lorenzo Pedroni; Luca Dellafiora

doi:10.1021/acsomega.4c01738

Effects of Chrysin and Chrysin-7-sulfate on Ochratoxin A-Albumin Interactions and on the Plasma and Kidney Levels of the Mycotoxin in Rats

ACS Omega. 2024 Apr 2;9(15):17655-17666. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.4c01738. eCollection 2024 Apr 16.

Authors

Miklós Poór^{1

2

3}, Ágnes Dombi³, Eszter Fliszár-Nyúl³, Lorenzo Pedroni⁴, Luca Dellafiora⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Medical School, University of Pécs, Ifjúság útja 13, Pécs H-7624, Hungary.
² Molecular Medicine Research Group, János Szentágothai Research Centre, University of Pécs, Ifjúság útja 20, Pécs H-7624, Hungary.
³ Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Pécs, Rókus u. 2, Pécs H-7624, Hungary.
⁴ Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Via G.P. Usberti 27/A, Parma 43124, Italy.

Abstract

The nephrotoxic mycotoxin ochratoxin A (OTA) is a common food contaminant. OTA binds to the Sudlow's Site I region of serum albumin with very high affinity, resulting in its slow elimination. The displacement of OTA from albumin may be beneficial due to the faster excretion of the mycotoxin, while it may also lead to the increased tissue uptake of OTA. Furthermore, it is challenging to displace the mycotoxin from albumin even with high-affinity Site I ligands. In this study, we tested the impacts of Site I and Heme site ligands on OTA-albumin interactions by applying fluorescence spectroscopic, ultracentrifugation, and modeling studies. Chrysin-7-sulfate (C7S) strongly displaced OTA from both human and rat albumins; therefore, the impacts of C7S (single intravenous administration) and the parent flavonoid chrysin (repeated peroral treatment) were examined on the plasma and kidney levels of OTA in rats. Chrysin barely influenced the concentrations of mycotoxin in plasma and kidneys. In the first few hours, C7S significantly decreased the plasma levels of OTA compared to the control animals; while after 24 h, only minor differences were noticed. Our study highlights the superior displacing ability of C7S vs OTA regarding human and rat albumins.