NADPH oxidase activity: Spectrophotometric determination of superoxide using pyrogallol red

•Neutrophil-like cells stimulated with PMA induce bleaching of PGR.•PGR bleaching is induced by superoxide generated by NOX.•PGR is a useful extracellular probe for the determination of NOX activity.•Determinations were performed in a 96-wells microplate based method.

A simple and fast spectrophotometric methodology able to quantify superoxide released by NADPH oxidase from differentiated promyelocytic leukaemia (HL-60) cells using pyrogallol red is described.The latter is based on the known stoichiometry of the reaction between superoxide and pyrogallol red and the inability of pyrogallol red to react with hydrogen peroxide. In addition, we developed a 96-wells microplate-based method able to determine NADPH oxidase activity. Using this method, we determined pharmacological properties of the NADPH oxidase inhibitors VAS2870 and diphenyleneiodonium and the obtained IC50 values were in good agreement with previous reported data. NOX2 is highly expressed in differentiated promyelocytic leukaemia cells, whereas other isoforms are not detected or expressed at low amounts. Likewise, this methodology may be a useful assay for NOX2 inhibitor screening. NADPH oxidases are involved in several physiological and pathological processes, rendering its pharmacological modulation an attractive research target. In this context, this simple assay can be used for NADPH oxidase inhibitor screening as well as aiding in the study of different biological conditions that involve NADPH oxidase activity.

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