Article

SZC-6, a small-molecule activator of SIRT3, attenuates cardiac hypertrophy in mice

Ze-yu Li1, Guo-qing Lu2, Jing Lu1, Pan-xia Wang1, Xiao-lei Zhang2, Yong Zou2, Pei-qing Liu1
1 National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Druggability and New Drugs Evaluation, Guangdong Province Engineering Laboratoty for Druggability and New Drug Evaluation, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
2 School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Correspondence to: Yong Zou: zouyong3@mail.sysu.edu.cn, Pei-qing Liu: liupq@mail.sysu.edu.cn,
DOI: 10.1038/s41401-022-00966-8
Received: 19 March 2022
Accepted: 24 July 2022
Advance online: 30 August 2022

Abstract

Sirtuin3 (SIRT3), a class III histone deacetylase, is implicated in various cardiovascular diseases as a novel therapeutic target. SIRT3 has been proven to be cardioprotective in a model of Ang II-induced cardiac hypertrophy. However, a few small-molecule compounds targeting deacetylases could activate SIRT3. In this study, we generated a novel SIRT3 activator, 3-(2-bromo-4-hydroxyphenyl)-7-hydroxy-2H-chromen-2-one (SZC-6), through structural optimization of the first SIRT3 agonist C12. We demonstrated that SZC-6 directly bound to SIRT3 with Kd value of 15 μM, and increased SIRT3 deacetylation activity with EC50 value of 23.2 ± 3.3 µM. In neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCMs), pretreatment with SZC-6 (10, 20, 40 µM) dose-dependently attenuated isoproterenol (ISO)-induced hypertrophic responses. Administration of SZC-6 (20, 40 and 60 mg·kg−1·d−1, s.c.) for 2 weeks starting from one week prior ISO treatment dose-dependently reversed ISO-induced impairment of diastolic and systolic cardiac function in wild-type mice, but not in SIRT3 knockdown mice. We showed that SZC-6 (10, 20, 40 µM) dose-dependently inhibited cardiac fibroblast proliferation and differentiation into myofibroblasts, which was abolished in SIRT3-knockdown mice. We further revealed that activation of SIRT3 by SZC-6 increased ATP production and rate of mitochondrial oxygen consumption, and reduced ROS, improving mitochondrial function in ISO-treated NRCMs. We also found that SZC-6 dose-dependently enhanced LKB1 phosphorylation, thereby promoting AMPK activation to inhibit Drp1-dependent mitochondrial fragmentation. Taken together, these results demonstrate that SZC-6 is a novel SIRT3 agonist with potential value in the treatment of cardiac hypertrophy partly through activation of the LKB1-AMPK pathway.
Keywords: cardiac hypertrophy; SIRT3; SZC-6; oxidative stress; mitochondrial malfunction; LKB1-AMPK pathway

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