Abstract
Apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is closely related to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, and oxidative stress is an important cause of VSMCs' death. Inhibiting VSMCs apoptosis is an effective preventive strategy in slowing down the development of cardiovascular disease, especially for atherosclerosis. In this study, we found that oxidation resistance protein 1 (OXR1), a crucial participator for responding to oxidative stress, could modulate the expression of p53, the key regulator of cell apoptosis. Our results revealed that oxidative stress promoted VSMCs apoptosis by overexpression of the OXR1-p53 axis, and 6-shogaol (6S), a major biologically active compound in ginger, could effectively attenuate cell death by preventing the upregulated expression of the OXR1-p53 axis. Quantitative proteomics analysis revealed that the degradation of p53 mediated by OXR1 might be related to the enhanced assembly of SCF ubiquitin ligase complexes, which is reported to closely relate to the modification of ubiquitination or neddylation and subsequent degradation of p53.