Abstract
Intrinsic activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH)2, a cardiac mitochondrial enzyme, is vital in detoxifying 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4HNE) like cellular reactive carbonyl species (RCS) and thereby conferring cardiac protection against pathological stress. It was also known that a single point mutation (E487K) in ALDH2 (prevalent in East Asians) known as ALDH2*2 reduces its activity intrinsically and was associated with increased cardiovascular diseases. We and others have shown that ALDH2 activity is reduced in several pathologies in WT animals as well. Thus, exogenous augmentation of ALDH2 activity is a good strategy to protect the myocardium from pathologies. In this study, we will test the efficacy of intracardiac injections of the ALDH2 gene in mice. We injected both wild type (WT) and ALDH2*2 knock-in mutant mice with ALDH2 constructs, AAv9-cTNT-hALDH2-HA tag-P2A-eGFP or their control constructs, AAv9-cTNT-eGFP. We found that intracardiac ALDH2 gene transfer increased myocardial levels of ALDH2 compared to GFP alone after 1 and 3 weeks. When we subjected the hearts of these mice to 30 min global ischemia and 90 min reperfusion (I-R) using the Langendorff perfusion system, we found reduced infarct size in the hearts of mice with ALDH2 gene vs GFP alone. A single time injection has shown increased myocardial ALDH2 activity for at least 3 weeks and reduced myocardial 4HNE adducts and infarct size along with increased contractile function of the hearts while subjected to I-R. Thus, ALDH2 overexpression protected the myocardium from I-R injury by reducing 4HNE protein adducts implicating increased 4HNE detoxification by ALDH2. In conclusion, intracardiac ALDH2 gene transfer is an effective strategy to protect the myocardium from pathological insults.