Synthesis of β-alanine C60 derivative and its protective effect on hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis in rat pheochromocytoma cells

Oxidative stress has been considered as a major cause of cellular injuries in a variety of clinical abnormalities, especially prominent in neural diseases. One of the effective ways to prevent the reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediated cellular injury is dietary or pharmaceutical augmentation of some free radical scavenger. Water-soluble amino-fullerene derivative is a novel compound that behaves as a free radical scavenger with excellent biocompatibility. In the present study, we synthesized a novel β-alanine C60 derivative. The product was characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, LC-MS and elemental analysis. We investigated the protective effect on hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress and apoptotic death in cultured rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells. PC12 cells treated with hydrogen peroxide underwent apoptotic death determined by MTT, flow cytometry analysis and PI/Hoechst 33342 staining. Moreover, the scavenging ability of β-alanine C60 derivative to reactive oxygen species both in vivo and in vitro of PC12 cells was measured. The results suggest that β-alanine C60 derivative has the potential to prevent oxidative stress-induced cell death without evident toxicity. Hence, on the basis of the above-mentioned studies, we can hypothesize that the protective effect of β-alanine C60 derivative on H2O2 induced apoptosis is related to their known scavenger activity toward ROS.