Nitroso-imidacloprid irreversibly inhibits rabbit aldehyde oxidase.

The major neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid (IMI) is used worldwide for crop protection and pest control on pets. IMI is extensively metabolized, oxidatively by cytochromes P450 and via aerobic nitroreduction by the molybdo-flavoenzyme aldehyde oxidase (AOX). Rabbit liver AOX is capable of reducing IMI to both its nitrosoguanidine (IMI-NO) and aminoguanidine (IMI-NH2) derivatives; however, when IMI-NO is used as a substrate, less than stoichiometric amounts of IMI-NH2 are detected while IMI-NO is completely consumed. The disappearance of IMI-NO requires both a source of AOX and an AOX-specific electron donor substrate and is not inhibited by the addition of catalase and superoxide dismutase. Experiments to evaluate IMI-NO as a possible time-dependent inactivator of AOX reveal the following four characteristics: First, partially purified AOX (ppAOX) is inactivated at a moderate rate by the electron donor substrate N-methylnicotinamide (NMN); second, AOX is inactivated by IMI-NO in an NMN-dependent manner at a 10-fold greater rate; third, IMI does not inactivate AOX; and finally, GSH protects AOX from inactivation but not to a degree greater than IMI-NO-deficient incubations. Values for the kinetic constants of KI and kinact are measured to be 1.3 mM and 0.35 min(-1), respectively. Ultrafiltration is used to establish that IMI-NO inactivation is not reversible and to determine a partition ratio of 1.6. [3H]IMI-NO labeling shows that significant amounts (19%) of this molecule covalently bind to protein following reduction by ppAOX. The addition of 10 mM GSH attenuates this binding almost completely. These findings demonstrate that IMI-NO is metabolically activated by rabbit AOX to form both an irreversible inhibitor and a reactive intermediate that is capable of covalently binding to protein.