Gentamicin Affects the Bioenergetics of Isolated Mitochondria and Collapses the Mitochondrial Membrane Potential in Cochlear Sensory Hair Cells

Aminoglycoside antibiotics are widely prescribed to treat a variety of serious bacterial infections. They are extremely useful clinical tools, but have adverse side effects such as oto- and nephro- toxicity. Once inside a cell they are thought to cause mitochondrial dysfunction, subsequently leading to apoptotic cell death due to an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Here we present evidence of a direct effect of gentamicin (the most commonly prescribed aminoglycoside) on the respiratory activities of isolated rat liver and kidney mitochondria. We show that gentamicin stimulates state 4 and inhibits state 3u respiratory rates, thereby reducing the respiratory control ratio whilst simultaneously causing a collapse of the mitochondrial membrane potential (MtMP). We propose that gentamicin behaves as an uncoupler of the electron transport chain – a hypothesis supported by our evidence that it reduces the production of mitochondrial ROS. We also show that gentamicin reduces the MtMP in the sensory hair cells of organotypic mouse cochlear cultures.