Salviae miltiorrhizae Liguspyragine Hydrochloride and Glucose Injection Protects against Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury and Heart Failure

PURPOSE: Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (MIR) injury is a common stimulus for cardiac diseases like cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure and may cause high mortality rates. Salviae miltiorrhizae liguspyragine hydrochloride and glucose injection (SGI) has been widely used to treat myocardial and cerebral infarctions in China even though its pharmacological mechanisms are not completely clear. METHODS: The protective effect and mechanism of SGI on MIR injury and heart failure were investigated through the H9c2 cell model induced by hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) and rapamycin, zebrafish model induced by H/R and isoprenaline, and rat MIR model. RESULTS: SGI significantly reduced the infarct size and alleviated the impairment of cardiac functions in the MIR rat model and H/R zebrafish model and promoted cell viability of cardiomyocyte-like H9c2 cells under H/R condition. Consistently, SGI significantly downregulated the serum level of biomarkers for cardiac damage and attenuated the oxidative damage in the MIR and H/R models. We also found that SGI could downregulate the increased autophagy level in those MIR and H/R models since autophagy can contribute to the injurious effects of ischemia-reperfusion in the heart, suggesting that SGI may alleviate MIR injury via regulating the autophagy pathway. In addition, we demonstrated that SGI also played a protective role in the isoproterenol-induced zebrafish heart failure model, and SGI significantly downregulated the increased autophagy and SP1/GATA4 pathways. CONCLUSION: SGI may exert anti-MIR and heart failure by inhibiting activated autophagy and the SP1/GATA4 pathway.