Effect of metal-organic interactions on the oxidative potential of mixtures of atmospheric humic-like substances and copper/manganese as investigated by the dithiothreitol assay

Abstract

Excessive generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the corresponding oxidative stress has been recognized as one important cause for the adverse health effects associated with exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM). Transition metals and humic-like substances (HULIS) in PM have been separately demonstrated to contribute to the oxidative potential (OP) of PM, however, only few studies investigated the impact of their interactions on the measured OP and the effect is little understood. HULIS is an abundant fraction of water-soluble organic material in PM and serves to represent real-world PM organics. In this study, we applied a cell-free dithiothreitol (DTT) assay to quantify the OP, termed as OPDTT, by two representative transition metals (i.e., copper (Cu) and manganese (Mn)), HULIS, and mixtures of HULIS and metals in concentration levels relevant to those in human lung fluid resulting from PM inhalation. The organic-metal mixture effect was found to be metal-specific and concentration-specific, covering the possibility spectrum from being synergistic, additive to antagonistic. HULIS was observed to suppress OPDTT up to 10–20% by Cu at a concentration of 0.08 μM while had no discernable effect at 0.5 μM Cu. On the contrary, obvious enhancement of OPDTT was recorded in the mixtures of HULIS and Mn (e.g. up to ~2 times at 2.5 μM of Mn) while no mixture effects could be discerned at 0.5 μM Mn. Our work demonstrates the need for considering the metal-organic interactions and the complexity when evaluating the total OP of their mixtures, such as ambient PM samples. Further work in metal-PM organics interactions should be conducted using methods capable of measuring specific oxidants, in addition to the ability to deplete the reducing agent (i.e., DTT), in order to acquire a deeper mechanistic insight into the interactions.