Antiapoptotic effect of novel compound from Herba leonuri - leonurine (SCM-198): a mechanism through inhibition of mitochondria dysfunction in H9c2 cells.

Apoptosis of cardiomyocytes induced by oxidative stress play a critical role in cardiac dysfunction associated with ventricular remodeling and heart failure. We recently reported that leonurine attenuated hypoxia-induced cardiomyocyte damage. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of leonurine (originally from Herba leonuri but we synthesized it chemically it as also called SCM-198) (H₂O₂)-induced rat embryonic heart-derived H9c2 cells from apoptosis. Exposing H9c2 cells to H₂O₂ significantly decreased cell viability, and this was attenuated by pretreatment with leonurine for 4 h in a concentration-dependent manner. Meanwhile, leonurine was found to reduce intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in H₂O₂-stimulated cell. Moreover, H9c2 cells stimulated by H₂O₂ was accompanied with apparent apoptotic characteristics, including fragmentation of DNA, apoptotic body formation, release of cytochrome c, translocation of Bax to mitochondria, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ(m)) and activation of caspase 3. Furthermore, H₂O₂ also induced rapid and significant phosphorylation of the c-Jun-N-terminal kinase 1/2 (JNK1/2), which was inhibited SP600125 (a JNK1/2 inhibitor). All of these events were attenuated by leonurine pretreatment. Taken together, these results demonstrated that leonurine could protect H9c2 cells from H₂O₂-induced apoptosis via modulation of mitochondrial dysfunction associated with blocking the activation of JNK1/2.