Aflatoxin Aldehyde Reductase (AFAR)

Aldo-keto reductases, such as AKR7A2, are involved in the detoxification of aldehydes and ketones.Ireland et al. (1998) used a rat aflatoxin B1-aldehyde reductase (AFAR) cDNA and a human EST sequence to isolate human AFAR cDNAs from cerebellum and liver libraries. The full-length cDNA encodes a 330-amino acid polypeptide with 78% identity to rat AFAR, 22% identity to a Shaker-related voltage-gated potassium channel, and 16% identity to aldose reductase. Northern blot analysis revealed that AFAR is expressed in a wide range of human tissues.

AFAR can metabolize aflatoxin, but its specificity for some substrates differs from that of rat AFAR. They showed that AFAR is the principal human liver reductase for 2-carboxybenzaldehyde.