Effect of ammonium perfluorooctanoate on acetylcholinesterase activity and inhibition using MALDI-FTICRMS

Ammonium perfluorooctanoate (APFO) is a commercially important compound, but its harm to people's health has raised widespread concern. In the past, the investigations into APFO and its degradation product (perfluorooctanoic acid, PFOA) were all about their effect on indicator compounds in animals and enzyme activities. Here, we provided a new suggestion to investigate the influence of APFO and PFOA. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) was chosen as research subject to reflect the effect of external perfluorochemicals. We applied matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (MALDI-FTICRMS) to detect the activity of AChE rapidly and accurately. On this basis, not only AChE activity but also AChE inhibition was studied carefully. The presence of APFO and PFOA showed obvious increase of AChE activity. Moreover, addition of both APFO and PFOA had enhanced AChE inhibition from organophosphorous (OP) pesticide (irreversible inhibitor). Otherwise, the participation of APFO and PFOA had not increased AChE inhibitions from reversible inhibitor galantamine. These results might provide new insights into the effect of APFO and encourage the deep understanding about effect of APFO on human being.