Abstract:
Objective To study the effect of trimetazidine (TMZ) in reducing rat myocardial injury induced by cisplatin and the cardioprotective effect of Nrf2/HO-1 by inhibiting Keap-1.
Methods Rat myocardial cells were isolated and divided into three groups: control group, cisplatin treated group (200 μM), and cisplatin +TMZ (200 μM) treated group. Cell viability and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were examined. Western blot and Real-time PCR were used to detect the expression of Nrf2, its upstream Keap-1, and downstream HO-1.
Results TMZ reduced the inhibitory effect of cisplatin on cardiomyocyte activity (P<0.01). TMZ pretreatment could effectively inhibit ROS production (P<0.01). Western blot results showed that TMZ pretreatment increased the expression of Nrf2 (P<0.01), inhibited the expression of Keap-1 (P<0.01), and enhanced HO-1 expression level (P<0.01). Compared with the control group, Real-time PCR revealed that the expression of Nrf2 was significantly increased by cisplatin treatment (P<0.0001), and TMZ pretreatment promoted the nuclear translocation of Nrf2 (P<0.01). Cisplatin significantly promoted the expression of Keap-1 (P<0.0001) and hemo oxygenase 1 (HO-1) (P<0.0001). TMZ pretreatment significantly inhibited the expression of Keap-1 (P<0.0001) and significantly enhanced the expression of HO-1 (P<0.001).
Conclusions TMZ significantly inhibited the myocardial injury induced by cisplatin, in part owing to the Keap-1/Nrf2/HO-1 associated antioxidant defense system. The findings suggest that TMZ has a cardioprotective effect as an antioxidant for the treatment of myocardial injury induced by chemotherapeutic drugs.