Mechanistic characterization of tenuazonic acid-induced cellular stress responses in human esophageal KYSE-510 cells

Tenuazonic acid (TeA) is an emerging Alternaria mycotoxin frequently detected in food and feed commodities, raising concerns about its toxicological relevance. Chronic oral exposure to TeA has been reported to induce dysplastic alterations in the esophageal mucosa of mice, while human biomonitoring data indicate an association between TeA exposure and esophageal cancer, although a causal relationship has not yet been established. At a mechanistic level, the effects of TeA in esophageal cells remain poorly characterized. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of TeA on cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, DNA damage, mitochondrial homeostasis, cell-cycle distribution and transcriptomic stress responses in human esophageal KYSE-510 cells. TeA induced a concentration-dependent reduction in metabolic activity and total protein content after 24 h exposure to 0.1-100 µM. Significant cytotoxicity was measured starting from 20 µM. At sub-cytotoxic concentrations, TeA triggered rapid ROS formation within 5-30 min exposure and induced formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase (FPG) sensitive DNA damage after 1 h exposure (5-7.5 µM), indicating oxidative DNA lesions. In addition, TeA altered mitochondrial morphology after 4 h exposure at 7.5 µM, manifested by shrinkage of the mitochondrial network area and perinuclear redistribution, while mitochondrial respiration showed only a non-significant tendency towards reduced respiratory capacity. RNA sequencing after 6 h exposure to 10 µM TeA revealed oxidative stress-associated transcriptional changes, impaired antioxidant and stress-adaptive responses, and p53-associated stress signaling. Furthermore, TeA induced significant G₂/M phase accumulation after 24 h exposure to 1-10 µM.