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Updated: Jun 10, 2026
Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Based Developmental Toxicity Assays for Chemical Safety Screening and Systems Biology Data Generation
Published on: June 17, 2015
siRNA-mediated AMPKalpha1 subunit gene PRKAA1 silencing enhances methylmercury toxicity in HEK293 cells
Gi-Wook Hwang1, Mayumi Tobita, Tsutomu Takahashi
1Laboratory of Molecular and Biochemical Toxicology, Department of Microbiology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University, Miyagi, Japan.
Abstract:
The environmental pollutant methylmercury is a potent neurotoxin. The mechanisms of toxicity and biological defense remain largely unknown. We found that inhibiting the expression of PRKAA1 (AMPKalpha1), an activated subunit of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), increased susceptibility of HEK293 cells to methylmercury toxicity. Treatment of the cells with AICAR (5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-beta-D-ribofuranoside), an AMPK activator, reduced the methylmercury toxicity. Here, we suggest for the first time that the activation (phosphorylation) of AMPK may play an important role in reducing the toxicity of methylmercury.
