Proteomic analysis of the heart under aerobic condition and after ischemia/reperfusion

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is one of the main causes of mortality and one of the significant burdens to society. Major cardiovascular diseases such as acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia often result in the development of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Untreated I/R injury is known to cause cardiac contractile dysfunction. It is established that matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) is activated and degrades contractile proteins during I/R, and many other factors including metabolic enzymes, kinases and structural proteins are affected by I/R. However, the molecular mechanisms responsible for these changes are unclear. Since MMP-2 is known to its broad spectrum of action, I hypothesize that, in addition to contractile proteins, proteins related to regulation of energy metabolism are MMP-2 targets during I/R, and protein kinase such as myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) is also involved in this process. The use of proteomics in studying heart injury triggered by I/R will reveal new potential targets for pharmacological protection of heart from I/R induced contractile dysfunction. In addition, selective inhibition of MMP-2 using MMP-2 siRNA protects the heart from I/R injury. In this study, we investigated the protein modulation during I/R using proteomic approach. In order to study the effect of protein kinases (MLCK) and MMP-2, their selective inhibitors were used to inhibit those factors and evaluate the changes in energy metabolic proteins during I/R. Proteomic analysis revealed that six proteins are involved in energy metabolism: ATP synthase β subunit, cytochrome b-c1 complex subunit 1, 24-kDa mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase, NADH dehydrogenase [ubiquinone] iron-sulfur protein 8, cytochrome c oxidase subunit, and succinyl-CoA ligase subunit, resulting in decreased levels in I/R hearts. The data suggests that energy metabolic proteins, especially the metabolic enzymes involved in the electron transport chain in the mitochondria may contribute to I/R injury. In addition, our data provides evidence that the right and left ventricles of the heart respond differently to I/R injury, in terms of the regulation of contractile proteins and energy metabolic enzymes. Studies using MLCK inhibitor, ML-7, and MMP-2 inhibitor, MMP-2 siRNA to investigate the effect of myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) and MMP-2 in energy metabolic proteins have shown that succinyl-CoA ligase and ATP synthase are affected by MLCK and MMP-2 respectively. These results demonstrate that the effect of inhibition of the MLCK and MMP-2 involves optimization of energy metabolism in I/R injury, likely resulting in increased energy production. Hence, the observed proteins increase in cardiac recovery after I/R. Also, inhibition of MLCK and MMP-2 by ML-7 and MMP-2 respectively shows cardio protective effect during I/R. In summary, this study provides a novel pathogenesis in the development of I/R-induced cardiac contractile dysfunction. Moreover, we suggest a new therapeutic approach whereby using MMP-2 siRNA can be a promising gene therapy in the development of new preventive or treatment strategies against I/R injury.