Aldehyde oxidase mediated enantioselective metabolic health risk of dinotefuran

Chiral pollutants often pose significant differential environmental health risks. In this study, the biotransformation of chiral dinotefuran (DIN) and its enantioselective metabolic toxicity mechanisms have been systemically investigated. Firstly, reversed-phase chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry was developed to quantify the content of DIN R/S chiral enantiomer with pg level sensitivity, revealing a lower elimination rate constant (K_e) of S-DIN (0.730 h⁻¹) than R-DIN (0.746 h⁻¹). Secondly, the interaction mechanism between DIN metabolism and important endogenous bioactive molecules, such as aldehyde oxidase (AOX) and neurotransmitters, was revealed. The DIN nitro-group was converted into a guanidine group by the reducing site of nearby flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) in AOX with the preferred higher affinity of S-configuration. Meanwhile, the endogenous tryptophan (Trp) aldehyde metabolic intermediate, 5-hydroxyindoleacetaldehyde (5-HIAL), provides a persistent electron donor for DIN reduction via the oxidation-catalyzed site in AOX, resulting in remarkable up-regulation of monoamine neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine. Thirdly, the higher level of neurotransmitters further mediated dysregulation of oxylipin homeostasis via the serotonergic pathway, where S-DIN exhibited more pronounced liver lipid damage and environmental health risk with the accumulated lipid biomarkers, oxidized triglyceride (OxTG) and oxidized sphingomyelin (OxSM). This study elucidates the AOX-mediated enantioselectivity metabolic pathway of DIN, providing a new analytical method for chiral pollutants and paves the way for their health risk assessments.