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Abstract
Reperfusion injury is responsible for an important part of myocardial infarct establishment due notably to triggering cardiomyocytes death at the first minutes of reperfusion. AZP-531 is an optimized analog of unacylated ghrelin currently in clinical development in several metabolic diseases. We investigated a potential cardioprotective effect of AZP-531 in ischemia/reperfusion (IR) and the molecular underlying mechanism(s) involved in this protection. In vivo postconditioning with AZP-531 in C57BL6 mouse IR model decreased infarct size. Western blot analysis on areas at risk from the different mouse groups showed that AZP-531 activates Akt, ERK1-2 as well as S6 and 4EBP1, mTORC1 effectors. We also showed an inhibition of caspase 3 cleavage and Bax translocation to the mitochondria. AZP-531 also stimulated the expression of antioxidants and was capable of decreasing mitochondrial H2O2 production, contributing to the reduction of ROS accumulation. AZP-531 exhibits cardioprotective effect when administrated for postconditioning in C57BL6 mouse IR model. Treatment with AZP-531 rescued the myocardium from cell death at early reperfusion by stimulating protein synthesis, inhibiting Bax/caspase 3-induced apoptosis as well as ROS accumulation and oxidative stress-induced necrosis. AZP-531 may prove useful in the treatment of IR injury.