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Li WQ, Qin ZS, Chen S, Cheng D, Yang SC, Choi YMM, Chu B, Zhou WH, Zhang ZJ. Hirudin alleviates acute ischemic stroke by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated neuroinflammation: In vivo and in vitro approaches. Int Immunopharmacol 2022; 110:108967. [PMID: 35724604 DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2022.108967] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2022] [Revised: 05/21/2022] [Accepted: 06/13/2022] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Acute ischemic stroke is a severe condition that a vessel supplying blood to the brain is abruptly blocked mostly due to cerebral thrombosis and embolism. There is a dearth of the effective prevention and early intervention strategies. NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome-mediated neuroinflammation plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of ischemic stroke. Hirudin is a secretion from the salivary glands of the leech Hirudo medicinalis and has a role in regulating inflammation. In this study, hirudin with a dose of 10-40 mg/kg was given to middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion mice. Hirudin markedly constrained cerebral infarct area in a dose-dependent manner, and significantly improved locomotor disability at 40 mg/kg dose. Similar to MCC950, a selective NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor, hirudin inhibited M1 polarization and promoted M2 polarization. It also strikingly suppressed the ischemia-induced overexpression of NLRP3 and its downstream components, caspase-1, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC), and interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Hirudin and MCC950 equivalently protected viability and death of BV-2 microglia cells against oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R), an in vitro cell model of brain ischemia. Both agents had similar effects in normalizing the OGD/R-evoked aberrant microglial profiles and NLRP3 pathway dysregulation as observed in the mice. These results demonstrated anti-ischemic effects of hirudin and its association with the inhibition of microglial NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated neuroinflammation. Hirudin is a promising agent for the early intervention of acute ischemic stroke.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen-Qi Li
- School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH), Shenzhen, China
| | - Zong-Shi Qin
- School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Shuang Chen
- School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Dan Cheng
- School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Si-Chang Yang
- School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | | | - Buggic Chu
- JINKANGDAOFU Bio-Technology Limited Co., Hong Kong, China
| | - Wei-Hai Zhou
- Guangxi KeyKen Research Institute of Natural Hirudin, Nanning, Guangxi, China
| | - Zhang-Jin Zhang
- School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH), Shenzhen, China.
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