Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) is mainly located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) but is also secreted into the bloodstream where its oxidoreductase activity is involved with thrombus formation. Quercetin-3-rutinoside (Q3R) blocks this activity, but its inhibitory mechanism against PDI is not fully understood. Here, we examined the potential inhibitory effect of Q3R on another process that requires PDI: disassembly of the multimeric cholera toxin (CT). In the ER, PDI physically displaces the reduced CTA1 subunit from its non-covalent assembly in the CT holotoxin. This is followed by CTA1 dislocation from the ER to the cytosol where the toxin interacts with its G protein target for a cytopathic effect. Q3R blocked the conformational change in PDI that accompanies its binding to CTA1, which, in turn, prevented PDI from displacing CTA1 from its holotoxin and generated a toxin-resistant phenotype. Other steps of the CT intoxication process were not affected by Q3R, including PDI binding to CTA1 and CT reduction by PDI. Additional experiments with the B chain of ricin toxin found that Q3R could also disrupt PDI function through the loss of substrate binding. Q3R can thus inhibit PDI function through distinct mechanisms in a substrate-dependent manner.
