Chronic exposure to sulfide causes accelerated degradation of cytochrome c oxidase in ethylmalonic encephalopathy

Ethylmalonic encephalopathy (EE) is an autosomal recessive, invariably fatal disorder associated with mutations in ETHE1, a gene encoding a mitochondrial sulfur dioxygenase (SDO). The main consequence of the absence of Ethe1-SDO is the accumulation of sulfide (H2S) in critical tissues, including colonic mucosa, liver, muscle, and brain. To make progress in the elucidation of the biochemical mechanisms leading to cytochrome c oxidase (COX) deficiency, we (i) generated tissue-specific conditional Ethe1 knockout mice to clarify the different contributions of endogenous and exogenous H2S production, and (ii) studied the development of H2S-driven COX deficiency in Ethe1-/- mouse tissues and human cells. Ethe1 -/- conditional animals displayed COX deficiency limited to the specific targeted tissue. The accumulation of H2S over time causes progressive COX deficiency in animal tissues and human cells, which is associated with reduced amount of COX holoenzyme, and of several COX subunits, including mitochondrially encoded cytochrome c oxidase 1 (MTCO1), MTCO2, COX4, and COX5A. This reduction is not paralleled by consistent downregulation in expression of the corresponding mRNAs. Tissue-specific ablation of Ethe1 causes COX deficiency in targeted organs, suggesting that failure in neutralizing endogenous, tissue-specific production of H2S is sufficient to cause the biochemical defect but neither to determine a clinical impact nor to induce the biomarker profile typical of EE. The mechanism by which H2S causes COX deficiency consists of rapid heme a inhibition and accelerated long-term degradation of COX subunits. However, the pleiotropic devastating effects of H2S accumulation in EE cannot be fully explained by the sole defect of COX in critical tissues, but are likely consequent to several toxic actions on a number of enzymatic activities in different tissues, including endothelial lining of the small vessels, leading to multiorgan failure.