Lagoa, RicardoGraziani, IlariaLopez-Sanchez, CarmenGarcia-Martinez, VirginioGutierrez-Merino, Carlos2025-11-062025-11-062011-12icardo Lagoa, Ilaria Graziani, Carmen Lopez-Sanchez, Virginio Garcia-Martinez, Carlos Gutierrez-Merino, Complex I and cytochrome c are molecular targets of flavonoids that inhibit hydrogen peroxide production by mitochondria, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics, Volume 1807, Issue 12, 2011, Pages 1562-1572, ISSN 0005-2728, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbabio.2011.09.022.0005-2728http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/14547Flavonoids can protect cells from different insults that lead to mitochondria-mediated cell death, and epidemiological data show that some of these compounds attenuate the progression of diseases associated with oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. In this work, a screening of 5 flavonoids representing major subclasses showed that they display different effects on H2O2 production by mitochondria isolated from rat brain and heart. Quercetin, kaempferol and epicatechin are potent inhibitors of H2O2 production by mitochondria from both tissues (IC50 ≈ 1–2 μM), even when H2O2 production rate was stimulated by the mitochondrial inhibitors rotenone and antimycin A. Although the rate of oxygen consumption was unaffected by concentrations up to 10 μM of these flavonoids, quercetin, kaempferol and apigenin inhibited complex I activity, while up to 100 μM epicatechin produced less than 20% inhibition. The extent of this inhibition was found to be dependent on the concentration of coenzyme Q in the medium, suggesting competition between the flavonoids and ubiquinone for close binding sites in the complex. In contrast, these flavonoids did not significantly inhibit the activity of complexes II and III, and did not affect the redox state of complex IV. However, we have found that epicatechin, quercetin and kaempferol are able to stoichiometrically reduce purified cytochrome c. Our results reveal that mitochondria are a plausible main target of flavonoids mediating, at least in part, their reported preventive actions against oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction-associated pathologies.engFlavonoidMitochondriaHydrogen peroxide productionComplex IUbiquinoneCytochrome cjournal article10.1016/j.bbabio.2011.09.022