(-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate inhibits voltage-gated proton currents in BV2 microglial cells

(-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the principal constituent of green tea, protects neurons from toxic insults by suppressing the microglial secretion of neurotoxic inflammatory mediators. Voltage-gated proton channels are expressed in microglia, and are required for NADPH oxidase-dependent reactive oxygen species generation. Brain damage after ischemic stroke is dependent on proton channel activity. Accordingly, we examined whether EGCG could inhibit proton channel function in the murine microglial BV2 cells. EGCG potently inhibited proton currents with an IC₅₀ of 3.7 μM. Other tea catechins, (-)-epigallocatechin, (-)-epicatechin and (-)-epicatechin-3-gallate, were far less potent than EGCG. EGCG did not change the kinetics of proton currents such as the activation and the deactivation time constants, the reversal potential and the activation voltage, suggesting that the gating process of proton channels were not altered by EGCG. EGCG is known to disturb lipid rafts by sequestering cholesterol. However, neither extraction of cholesterol with methyl-β-cyclodextrin or cholesterol supplementation could reverse the EGCG inhibition of proton currents. In addition, the EGCG effect was preserved in the presence of the cytoskeletal stabilizers paclitaxel and phalloidin, phosphatase inhibitors, the antioxidant Trolox, superoxide dismutase or catalase. The proton channel inhibition can be a substantial mechanism for EGCG to suppress microglial activation and subsequent neurotoxic events.