Protective effects of Araloside C against myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion injury: potential involvement of heat shock protein 90

The present study was designed to investigate whether Araloside C, one of the major triterpenoid compounds isolated from Aralia elata known to be cardioprotective, can improve heart function following ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury and elucidate its underlying mechanisms. We observed that Araloside C concentration-dependently improved cardiac function and depressed oxidative stress induced by I/R. Similar protection was confirmed in isolated cardiomyocytes characterized by maintaining Ca²⁺ transients and cell shortening against I/R. Moreover, the potential targets of Araloside C were predicted using the DDI-CPI server and Discovery Studio software. Molecular docking analysis revealed that Araloside C could be stably docked into the ATP/ADP-binding domain of the heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) protein via the formation of hydrogen bonds. The binding affinity of HSP90 to Araloside C was detected using nanopore optical interferometry and yielded KD values of 29 μM. Araloside C also up-regulated the expression levels of HSP90 and improved cell viability in hypoxia/reoxygenation-treated H9c2 cardiomyocytes, whereas the addition of 17-AAG, a pharmacologic inhibitor of HSP90, attenuated Araloside C-induced cardioprotective effect. These findings reveal that Araloside C can efficiently attenuate myocardial I/R injury by reducing I/R-induced oxidative stress and [Ca²⁺ ]_i overload, which was possibly related to its binding to the HSP90 protein.