Deuterohemin-Ala-His-Thr-Val-Glu-Lys (DhHP-6) Mimicking Enzyme as Synergistic Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Material for Periodontitis Therapy

Jiaqing Yan; Min Liu; Yan Zhang; Ying Zhu; Qiuyan Chen; Yimeng Yang; Min Hu; Huimei Yu

doi:10.3390/biomimetics7040240

Deuterohemin-Ala-His-Thr-Val-Glu-Lys (DhHP-6) Mimicking Enzyme as Synergistic Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Material for Periodontitis Therapy

Biomimetics (Basel). 2022 Dec 14;7(4):240. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics7040240.

Authors

Jiaqing Yan¹, Min Liu¹, Yan Zhang¹, Ying Zhu¹, Qiuyan Chen², Yimeng Yang², Min Hu¹, Huimei Yu²

Affiliations

¹ Hospital of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
² Key Laboratory of Pathobiology, Ministry of Education, Department of Pathophysiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.

Abstract

Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease induced by plaque microorganisms. In the clinic, antibiotic assistant periodontal mechanical therapy is the most effective therapy for the treatment of periodontitis. However, the drug resistance of the antibiotics and the repeated coming and diminishing of the disorder of oxidation-reduction balance in the inflammatory tissue could not meet the high requirements for periodontic health control in long periods. Deuterohemin-ala-his-thr-val-glu-lys (DhHP-6) is a biomimetic oxidase-mimicking enzyme that simulates the reactive oxygen radical scavenger function of heme by synthesizing the new molecular material following the key structure and amino acid sequence of heme. In this article, we report the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of DhHP-6 by building a inflammatory model for human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) stimulated by lipolysaccharide (LPS) and its effects on periodontitis in Wistar rats. DhHP-6 reduced the oxidative stress of HGFs by increasing the amount of the reductase species of glutathione (GSH) and catalase (CAT) while decreasing the amount of oxidase species of malonaldehyde (MDA) and reactive oxygen species (ROS). DhHP-6 had a dose-dependent protective effect on alveolar bone absorption in rats with periodontitis, enhanced antioxidant capacity, and reduced inflammation. As determined by Micro-CT scanning, DhHP-6 reduced alveolar bone loss and improved the bone structure of the left maxillary first molar of rats. There were no obvious morphological and histological differences in the rat organs with or without DhHP-6 treatment. These results suggest that DhHP-6 can be used to treat periodontitis by increasing the expression levels of antioxidant enzymes and antioxidants in systemic and local tissues, thereby reducing levels of oxidation products and cyto-inflammatory factors. The synergistic antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of DhHP-6 suggest that there are promising applications of this biomimetic enzyme molecular material for the next generation of agents for periodontitis therapy.

Keywords: heme hexapeptide; oxidative stress; periodontitis; peroxidase-mimicking enzyme; reactive oxygen species.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Jilin Provincial Research Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology Projects (YDZJ202201ZYTS082), the Science and Technology Research Project of the Education Department of Jilin Province (JJKH20211211KJ and JJKH20221092KJ), and the Norman Bethune Program of Jilin University (2022B10).