Tetramethylpyrazine analogue CXC195 protects against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion-induced apoptosis through PI3K/Akt/GSK3β pathway in rats

• CXC195 is a new ligustrazine derivative.
• CXC195 protected against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury by reducing apoptosis.
• PI3K/Akt/GSK3β signaling pathway involved in its anti-apoptotic effect.

CXC195 showed strongest protective effects among the ligustrazine derivatives in cells and prevented apoptosis induced by H2O2 injury. We recently demonstrated that CXC195 protected against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury by its antioxidant activity. However, whether the anti-apoptotic action of CXC195 is involved in cerebral I/R injury is unknown. Here, we investigated the role of CXC195 in apoptotic processes induced by cerebral I/R and the possible signaling pathways. Male Wistar rats were submitted to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion for 2 h, followed by 24 h reperfusion. CXC195 was injected intraperitoneally at 2 h and 12 h after the onset of ischemia. The number of apoptotic cells was measured by TUNEL assay, apoptosis-related protein cleaved caspase-3, Bcl-2, Bax and the phosphorylation levels of Akt and GSK3β in ischemic penumbra were assayed by western blot. The results showed that administration of CXC195 at the doses of 3 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg significantly inhibited the apoptosis by decreasing the number of apoptotic cells, decreasing the level of cleaved caspase-3 and Bax, and increasing the level of Bcl-2 in rats subjected to I/R injury. Simultaneously, CXC195 treatment markedly increased the phosphorylation of Akt and GSK3β. Blockade of PI3K activity by wortmannin, dramatically abolished its anti-apoptotic effect and lowered both Akt and GSK3β phosphorylation levels. Our study firstly demonstrated that CXC195 protected against cerebral I/R injury by reducing apoptosis in vivo and PI3K/Akt/GSK3β pathway involved in the anti-apoptotic effect.