Regulation of rat liver hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase by a new class of noncompetitive inhibitors. Effects of dichloroacetate and related carboxylic acids on enzyme activity.

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Dichloroacetate (DCA) markedly reduces circulating cholesterol levels in animals and in patients with combined hyperlipoproteinemia or homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). To investigate the mechanism of its cholesterol-lowering action, we studied the effects of DCA and its hepatic metabolites, glyoxylate and oxalate, on the activity of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMG CoA reductase) obtained from livers of healthy, reverse light-cycled rats. Oral administration of DCA for 4 d decreased HMG CoA reductase activity 46% at a dose of 50 mg/kg per d, and 82% at a dose of 100 mg/kg per d. A 24% decrease in reductase activity was observed as early as 1 h after a single dose of 50 mg/kg DCA. The inhibitory effect of the drug was due to a fall in both expressed enzyme activity and the total number of reductase molecules present. DCA also decreased reductase activity when added to suspensions of isolated hepatocytes. With chronic administration, DCA inhibited 3H2O incorporation into cholesterol by 38% and into triglycerides by 52%. When liver microsomes were incubated with DCA, the pattern of inhibition of reductase activity was noncompetitive for both HMG CoA (inhibition constant [Ki] 11.8 mM) and NADPH (Ki 11.6 mM). Inhibition by glyoxylate was also noncompetitive for both HMG CoA (Ki 1.2 mM) and NADPH (Ki 2.7 mM). Oxalate inhibited enzyme activity only at nonsaturating concentrations of NADPH (Ki 5.6 mM). Monochloroacetate, glycollate, and ethylene glycol, all of which can form glyoxylate, also inhibited reductase activity. Using solubilized and 60-fold purified HMG CoA reductase, we found that the inhibitory effect of glyoxylate was reversible. Furthermore, the inhibition by glyoxylate was an effect exerted on the reductase itself, rather than on its regulatory enzymes, reductase kinase and reductase phosphatase. We conclude that the cholesterol-lowering effect of DCA is mediated, at least in part, by inhibition of endogenous cholesterol synthesis. The probable mechanisms are by inhibition of expressed reductase activity by DCA per se and by conversion of DCA to an active metabolite, glyoxylate, which noncompetitively inhibits HMG CoA reductase. These studies thus identify a new class of pharmacological agents that may prove useful in regulating cholesterol synthesis and circulating cholesterol levels in man.

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