Constitutive overexpression of immunoidentical forms of PCP-induced Euglena gracilis CYP-450

Abstract

Environmental pollutants are classically associated with increased drug metabolism. In this report, antibodies that are able to detect mammalian CYP proteins, namely the CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP2B1/B2, and CYP3A4 proteins, were used to investigate the expression of CYP-related proteins in Euglena gracilis (EG) cells under normal and PCP-treated conditions and in a EG-cell line adapted to PCP. Compared to normal conditions, the presence of PCP in the culture medium induced elevated levels of EG CYP-like proteins. With the exception of CYP3A4, this overexpression was correlated with expression of additional forms of CYP proteins having, respectively, the same molecular weight but slightly different p Is. Even in EG cells which had lost their PCP-adapted property after having been cultured without PCP, these additional forms were continuously expressed. This observation raised the question about the definition of a biomarker of pollution.