Sanqi Oral Solution Ameliorates Renal Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury via Reducing Apoptosis and Enhancing Autophagy: Involvement of ERK/mTOR Pathways

Ruimin Tian; Pinchao Wang; Lihua Huang; Chuang Li; Zhaoyu Lu; Zhisheng Lu; Aijun Wu; Kun Bao; Wei Mao; Qingming Huang; Peng Xu

doi:10.3389/fphar.2020.537147

Sanqi Oral Solution Ameliorates Renal Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury via Reducing Apoptosis and Enhancing Autophagy: Involvement of ERK/mTOR Pathways

Front Pharmacol. 2020 Sep 16:11:537147. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.537147. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Ruimin Tian^{1

2

3

4

5}, Pinchao Wang^{2

6}, Lihua Huang^{1

2

3

4}, Chuang Li^{1

2

3

4

5}, Zhaoyu Lu^{1

2

3

4}, Zhisheng Lu^{2

3}, Aijun Wu^{2

6}, Kun Bao^{1

2

3

5}, Wei Mao^{1

2

3

4}, Qingming Huang^{2

6}, Peng Xu^{1

2

3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Dampness Syndrome of Chinese Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
² The Second Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
³ Department of Nephrology, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
⁵ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine for Prevention and Treatment of Refractory Chronic Diseases, Guangzhou, China.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.

Abstract

Ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) induced acute kidney injury (AKI) is a significant health problem with high morbidity and mortality, yet prophylaxis strategies and effective drugs are limited. Sanqi oral solution (SQ) is a formulated medicine widely used in clinical settings to treat various renal diseases via enriching qi and activating blood circulation while its role on I/R-AKI remains unclear. Herein, by establishing rat I/R-AKI models, we intended to investigate the effect of SQ on the prevention of I/R-AKI and explore its underlying mechanisms. We demonstrated that SQ treatment significantly attenuated renal dysfunction of I/R-AKI, alleviated histological damages, inhibited renal apoptosis, and enhanced autophagy. Further investigation proved that SQ could significantly inhibit the activation of ERK and mTOR signaling pathways. Moreover, its renoprotective effect can be abolished by autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA). Collectively, our results suggest that SQ exerts renoprotective effects on renal I/R injury via reducing apoptosis and enhancing autophagy, which are associated with regulating ERK/mTOR pathways.

Keywords: Radix Astragali; Radix Notoginseng; acute kidney injury (AKI); apoptosis; autophagy; extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK); mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR); renal ischemia-reperfusion (I/R).