Hepatic enzymatic synthesis and hydrolysis of CoA esters of solvent-derived oxa acids

Many ethylene glycol‐derived solvents are oxidized to xenobiotic alkoxyacetic acids (3‐oxa acids) by hepatic enzymes. The toxicity of these ubiquitous solvents has been associated with their oxa acid metabolites. For many xenobiotic carboxylic acids, the toxicity is associated with the CoA ester of the acid. In this study, related alkoxyacetic acids were evaluated as potential substrates for acyl‐CoA synthetases found in mitochondrial, peroxisomal, and microsomal fractions isolated from rat liver. Likewise, chemically synthesized oxa acyl‐CoAs were used as substrates for acyl‐CoA hydrolases associated with the same rat liver fractions. Activities of the xenobiotic oxygen‐substituted substrates were compared with analogous physiologic aliphatic substrates by UV–vis spectrophotometric methods. All of the solvent‐derived oxa acids were reasonable substrates for the acyl‐CoA synthetases, although their activity was usually less than the corresponding physiologic acid. Acyl‐CoA hydrolase activities were decreased compared with acyl‐CoA synthetase activities for all substrates, especially for the oxa acyl‐CoAs. These studies suggest that these xenobiotic carboxylic acids may be converted to reactive acyl‐CoA moieties which will persist in areas of the cell proximal to lipid synthesis, β‐oxidation, protein acylation, and amino acid conjugation. The interaction of these xenobiotic acyl‐CoAs with those processes may be important to their toxicity and/or detoxification. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biochem Mol Toxicol 17:76–85, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/jbt.10063