Necrostatin-1 Analog DIMO Exerts Cardioprotective Effect against Ischemia Reperfusion Injury by Suppressing Necroptosis via Autophagic Pathway in Rats

Necrostatin-1: a promising compound for neurological disorders

Necrostatin-1, a small molecular alkaloid, was identified as an inhibitor of necroptosis in 2005. Investigating the fundamental mechanism of Necrostatin-1 and its role in various diseases is of great significance for scientific and clinical research. Accumulating evidence suggests that Necrostatin-1 plays a crucial role in numerous neurological disorders. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the potential functions of Necrostatin-1 in various neurological disorders, offering valuable insights for future research.

Programmed death of cardiomyocytes in cardiovascular disease and new therapeutic approaches

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) have a complex pathogenesis and pose a major threat to human health. Cardiomyocytes have a low regenerative capacity, and their death is a key factor in the morbidity and mortality of many CVDs. Cardiomyocyte death can be regulated by specific signaling pathways known as programmed cell death (PCD), including apoptosis, necroptosis, autophagy, pyroptosis, and ferroptosis, etc. Abnormalities in PCD can lead to the development of a variety of cardiovascular diseases, and there are also molecular-level interconnections between different PCD pathways under the same cardiovascular disease model. Currently, the link between programmed cell death in cardiomyocytes and cardiovascular disease is not fully understood. This review describes the molecular mechanisms of programmed death and the impact of cardiomyocyte death on cardiovascular disease development. Emphasis is placed on a summary of drugs and potential therapeutic approaches that can be used to treat cardiovascular disease by targeting and blocking programmed cell death in cardiomyocytes.

Mechanisms of PANoptosis and relevant small-molecule compounds for fighting diseases

Pyroptosis, apoptosis, and necroptosis are mainly programmed cell death (PCD) pathways for host defense and homeostasis. PANoptosis is a newly distinct inflammatory PCD pathway that is uniquely regulated by multifaceted PANoptosome complexes and highlights significant crosstalk and coordination among pyroptosis (P), apoptosis (A), and/or necroptosis(N). Although some studies have focused on the possible role of PANpoptosis in diseases, the pathogenesis of PANoptosis is complex and underestimated. Furthermore, the progress of PANoptosis and related agonists or inhibitors in disorders has not yet been thoroughly discussed. In this perspective, we provide perspectives on PANoptosome and PANoptosis in the context of diverse pathological conditions and human diseases. The treatment targeting on PANoptosis is also summarized. In conclusion, PANoptosis is involved in plenty of disorders including but not limited to microbial infections, cancers, acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS), ischemia-reperfusion, and organic failure. PANoptosis seems to be a double-edged sword in diverse conditions, as PANoptosis induces a negative impact on treatment and prognosis in disorders like COVID-19 and ALI/ARDS, while PANoptosis provides host protection from HSV1 or Francisella novicida infection, and kills cancer cells and suppresses tumor growth in colorectal cancer, adrenocortical carcinoma, and other cancers. Compounds and endogenous molecules focused on PANoptosis are promising therapeutic strategies, which can act on PANoptosomes-associated members to regulate PANoptosis. More researches on PANoptosis are needed to better understand the pathology of human conditions and develop better treatment.

Heart graft preservation technics and limits: an update and perspectives

Heart transplantation, the gold standard treatment for end-stage heart failure, is limited by heart graft shortage, justifying expansion of the donor pool. Currently, static cold storage (SCS) of hearts from donations after brainstem death remains the standard practice, but it is usually limited to 240 min. Prolonged cold ischemia and ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) have been recognized as major causes of post-transplant graft failure. Continuous ex situ perfusion is a new approach for donor organ management to expand the donor pool and/or increase the utilization rate. Continuous ex situ machine perfusion (MP) can satisfy the metabolic needs of the myocardium, minimizing irreversible ischemic cell damage and cell death. Several hypothermic or normothermic MP methods have been developed and studied, particularly in the preclinical setting, but whether MP is superior to SCS remains controversial. Other approaches seem to be interesting for extending the pool of heart graft donors, such as blocking the paths of apoptosis and necrosis, extracellular vesicle therapy, or donor heart-specific gene therapy. In this systematic review, we summarize the mechanisms involved in IRI during heart transplantation and existing targeting therapies. We also critically evaluate all available data on continuous ex situ perfusion devices for adult donor hearts, highlighting its therapeutic potential and current limitations and shortcomings.

Pharmaceutical Therapies for Necroptosis in Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

Cardiovascular disease morbidity/mortality are increasing due to an aging population and the rising prevalence of diabetes and obesity. Therefore, innovative cardioprotective measures are required to reduce cardiovascular disease morbidity/mortality. The role of necroptosis in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MI-RI) is beyond doubt, but the molecular mechanisms of necroptosis remain incompletely elucidated. Growing evidence suggests that MI-RI frequently results from the superposition of multiple pathways, with autophagy, ferroptosis, and CypD-mediated mitochondrial damage, and necroptosis all contributing to MI-RI. Receptor-interacting protein kinases (RIPK1 and RIPK3) as well as mixed lineage kinase domain-like pseudokinase (MLKL) activation is accompanied by the activation of other signaling pathways, such as Ca²⁺/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), NF-κB, and JNK-Bnip3. These pathways participate in the pathological process of MI-RI. Recent studies have shown that inhibitors of necroptosis can reduce myocardial inflammation, infarct size, and restore cardiac function. In this review, we will summarize the molecular mechanisms of necroptosis, the links between necroptosis and other pathways, and current breakthroughs in pharmaceutical therapies for necroptosis.

Identification of pharmacokinetic markers for safflower injection using a combination of system pharmacology, multicomponent pharmacokinetics, and quantitative proteomics study

Safflower injection (SI), a water-extract preparation from safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.), has been widely used for the treatment of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. This work aims to develop an approach for identifying PK markers of cardiovascular herbal medicines using SI as a case study. Firstly, qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed to reveal ingredients of the preparation via HPLC-MS. Subsequently, multiple PK ingredients and integrated PK investigations were carried out to ascertain ingredients with favorable PK properties (e.g., easily detected at conventional PK time points and high system exposure) for the whole preparation. Next, ingredients against cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in the preparation were predicted with target fishing and system pharmacology studies. Finally, ingredients with favorable PK properties, satisfactory PK representativeness for the preparation, and high relevance to CVDs were considered as potential PK markers. Their therapeutic effect was further evaluated using the H₂O₂-induced H9c2 cardiomyocyte-injured model and a proteomics study to identify objective PK markers. As results, it disclosed that SI mainly contains 11 ingredients. Among them, five ingredients, namely, hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA), syringin (SYR), p-coumaric acid (p-CA), scutellarin (SCU), and p-hydroxybenzaldehyde (p-HBA), showed favorable PK properties. HSYA, SYR, and rutin (RU) were predicted to show high relevance to CVDs and screened as potential PK markers. However, only HSYA and SYR were confirmed as therapeutic ingredients against CVDs. Combined with these findings, only HSYA demonstrated satisfactory representativeness on PK properties and therapeutic effects of multiple ingredients of the preparation, thereby indicating that HSYA is a potential PK marker for the SI. The results of this study can provide a reference for the characterization of PK markers for traditional Chinese medicines.

Simvastatin-loaded nano-niosomes efficiently downregulates the MAPK-NF-κB pathway during the acute phase of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury

BACKGROUND

Simvastatin can potentially mitigate acute inflammatory phase of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. However, these effects negatively influenced by its poor bioavailability, low water solubility and high metabolism. Here, we investigated the effects of SIM-loaded nano-niosomes on a rat model of MI/R injury to find a drug delivery method to tackle the barriers.

METHODS

Nano-niosomes' characteristics were identified using dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy. Fifty male Wistar rats were divided into five groups: Sham; MI/R; MI/R + nano-niosome; MI/R + SIM; MI/R + SIM-loaded nano-niosomes. Left anterior descending artery was ligated for 45 min, and 3 mg/kg SIM, nano-niosomes, or SIM-loaded nano-niosomes was intramyocardially injected ten min before the onset of reperfusion. ELISA assay was used to assess cardiac injury markers (cTnI, CK-MB) and inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, TGF-β, MPC-1). Expression level of MAPK-NF-κB and histopathological changes were evaluated by western blot and hematoxylin & eosin staining, respectively.

RESULTS

the size of nano-niosome was 137 nm, reached to 163 nm when simvastatin was loaded. To achieve optimized niosomes span 80, a drug/cholesterol ratio of 0.4 and seven min of sonication time was applied. Optimized entrapment efficiency of SIM-loaded nano-niosomes was 98.21%. Inflammatory cytokines and the expression level of MAPK and NF-κB were reduced in rats receiving SIM-loaded nano-niosomes compared to MI/R + SIM and MI/R + SIM-loaded nano-niosomes.

CONCLUSION

Our results showed that SIM-loaded nano-niosomes could act more efficiently than SIM in alleviating the acute inflammatory response of reperfusion injury via downregulating the activation of MAPK-NF-κB.

Necrosulfonamide improves post-resuscitation myocardial dysfunction via inhibiting pyroptosis and necroptosis in a rat model of cardiac arrest

The systemic inflammatory response following global myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is a critical driver of poor outcomes. Both pyroptosis and necroptosis are involved in the systemic inflammatory response and contribute to regional myocardial I/R injury. This study aimed to explore the effect of necrosulfonamide (NSA) on post-resuscitation myocardial dysfunction in a rat model of cardiac arrest. Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly categorized to Sham, CPR and CPR-NSA groups. For rats in the latter two groups, ventricular fibrillation was induced without treatment for 6 min, with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) being sustained for 8 min. Rats were injected with NSA (10 mg/kg in DMSO) or vehicle at 5 min following return of spontaneous circulation. Myocardial function was measured by echocardiography, survival and neurological deficit score (NDS) were recorded at 24, 48, and 72 h after ROSC. Western blotting was used to assess pyroptosis- and necroptosis-related protein expression. ELISAs were used to measure levels of inflammatory cytokine. Rats in the CPR-NSA group were found to exhibit superior post-resuscitation myocardial function, and better NDS values in the group of CPR-NSA. Rats in the group of CPR-NSA exhibited median survival duration of 68 ± 8 h as compared to 34 ± 21 h in the CPR group. After treatment with NSA, NOD-like receptor 3 (NLRP3), GSDMD-N, phosphorylated-MLKL, and phosphorylated-RIP3 levels in cardiac tissue were reduced with corresponding reductions in inflammatory cytokine levels. Administration of NSA significantly improved myocardial dysfunction succeeding global myocardial I/R injury and enhanced survival outcomes through protective mechanisms potentially related to inhibition of pyroptosis and necroptosis pathways.

Propofol Reduces Renal Ischemia Reperfusion-mediated Necroptosis by Up-regulation of SIRT1 in Rats

Propofol (Pro) is well known to regulate the asleep-awake-asleep technique. Increasing indication recommends that Pro also has promising properties such as anti-oxidant and anti-inflammation belongings in several disease models. It has been described that Pro has beneficial properties against renal ischemia/reperfusion (rI/R)-mediated acute lung injury (ALI). Nevertheless, pathogenesis underlying the beneficial action of Pro on the remote ALI mediated by rI/R remains unwell unstated. In this research, we displayed that Pro administration remarkably inhibits rI/R-mediated pro-inflammatory cytokines production. Increased levels of oxidative stress were mainly decreased by Pro. Pro administration ameliorated apoptosis-related caspase-3 activation. Furthermore, the levels of crucial necroptosis-associated protein were reduced by Pro. Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) inhibitor attenuated the aforementioned changes of Pro. In conclusion, these results propose that Pro attenuates rI/R-induced inflammation, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and necroptosis by up-regulation of SIRT1 in rats. Our findings disclose an original pathogenesis underlying the beneficial effect of Pro against rI/R-mediated ALI and reinforce the knowledge that Pro might be a hopeful beneficial agent for the rI/R-mediated ALI.

RIPK1-RIPK3 mediates myocardial fibrosis in type 2 diabetes mellitus by impairing autophagic flux of cardiac fibroblasts

Receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) and 3 (RIPK3) are critical regulators of programmed necrosis or necroptosis. However, the role of the RIPK1/RIPK3 signaling pathway in myocardial fibrosis and related diabetic cardiomyopathy is still unclear. We hypothesized that RIPK1/RIPK3 activation mediated myocardial fibrosis by impairing the autophagic flux. To this end, we established in vitro and in vivo models of type 2 diabetes mellitus with high glucose fat (HGF) medium and diet respectively. HGF induced myocardial fibrosis, and impaired cardiac diastolic and systolic function by activating the RIPK1/RIPK3 pathway, which increased the expression of autophagic related proteins such as LC3-II, P62 and active-cathepsin D. Inhibition of RIPK1 or RIPK3 alleviated HGF-induced death and fibrosis of cardiac fibroblasts by restoring the impaired autophagic flux. The autophagy blocker neutralized the effects of the RIPK1 inhibitor necrostatin-1 (Nec-1) and RIPK3 inhibitor GSK872 (GSK). RIPK1/RIPK3 inhibition respectively decreased the levels of RIPK3/p-RIPK3 and RIPK1/p-RIPK1. P62 forms a complex with RIPK1-RIPK3 and promotes the binding of RIPK1 and RIPK3, silencing of RIPK1 decreased the association of RIPK1 with P62 and the binding of P62 to LC3. Furthermore, inhibition of both kinases in combination with a low dose of Nec-1 and GSK in the HGF-treated fibroblasts significantly decreased cell death and fibrosis, and restored the autophagic flux. In the diabetic rat model, Nec-1 (1.65 mg/kg) treatment for 4 months markedly alleviated myocardial fibrosis, downregulated autophagic related proteins, and improved cardiac systolic and diastolic function. In conclusion, HGF induces myocardial fibrosis and cardiac dysfunction by activating the RIPK1-RIPK3 pathway and by impairing the autophagic flux, which is obviated by the pharmacological and genetic inhibition of RIPK1/RIPK3.