Environmental carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene alters neutral lipid storage via a cyp-35A2 mediated pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans

Yuzhi Chen, Mustafa Abbass, Trisha Brock, Gian Hobbs, Leonardo A. Ciufo, Christopher Hopkins, Volker M. Arlt, Stephen R. Stürzenbaum*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in particular benzo [a]pyrene (BaP), have been identified as carcinogenic components of tobacco smoke. In mammals, the toxicological response to BaP-diol-epoxide is driven by cytochrome P450 (CYP1A1), a pathway which is absent in Caenorhabditis elegans. In contrast, in worms prominently the CYP-35 enzyme family seems to be induced after BaP exposure. In C. elegans, BaP exposure reduces the accumulation of lysosomal neutral lipids in a dose dependent manner and the deletion of cyp-35A2 results in a significant elevation of neutral lipid metabolism. A cyp-35A2:mCherry;unc-47:GFP dual-labelled reporter strain facilitated the identification of three potential upstream regulators that drive BaP metabolism in worms, namely elt-2, nhr-49 and fos-1. This newly described reporter line is a powerful resource for future large-scale RNAi regarding toxicology and lipid metabolism screens.

Original languageEnglish
Article number122731
JournalEnvironmental Pollution
Volume339
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Dec 2023

Keywords

  • Benzo[a]pyrene
  • Caenorhabditis elegans
  • Cyp-35A2
  • Dual-labelled transgenic strain
  • Lipid storage
  • Transcription factor

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