Inhibiting platelet-stimulated blood coagulation by inhibition of mitochondrial respiration

Platelets are important mediators of blood coagulation that lack nuclei, but contain mitochondria. Although the presence of mitochondria in platelets has long been recognized, platelet mitochondrial function remains largely unaddressed. On the basis of a small amount of literature that suggests platelet mitochondria are functional, we hypothesized that the inhibition of platelet mitochondria disrupts platelet function and platelet-activated blood coagulation. To test this hypothesis, members of the tetrazole, thiazole, and 1,2,3-triazole families of small molecule heterocycles were screened for the ability to inhibit isolated mitochondrial respiration and coagulation of whole blood. The families of heterocycles screened were chosen on the basis of the ability of the heterocycle family to inhibit a biomimetic model of cytochrome c oxidase (CcO). The strength of mitochondrial inhibition correlates with each compound's ability to deter platelet stimulation and platelet-activated blood clotting. These results suggest that for this class of molecules, inhibition of blood coagulation may be occurring through a mechanism involving mitochondrial inhibition.