PUBLICATION

Antimalarial drug artemisinin depletes erythrocytes by activating apoptotic pathways in zebrafish

Authors
Yang, R., Yan, S., Zhu, X., Li, C.Y., Liu, Z., Xiong, J.W.
ID
ZDB-PUB-150115-7
Date
2015
Source
Experimental hematology   43(4): 331-341.e8 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Xiong, Jing-Wei
Keywords
artemisinin, erythropenia, hematopoiesis, polycythemia vera, zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Antimalarials/pharmacology*
  • Apoptosis*
  • Artemisinins/pharmacology*
  • Erythrocytes/drug effects*
  • Humans
  • K562 Cells
  • Mitochondria/metabolism
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Receptors, Death Domain/metabolism
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
25584867 Full text @ Exp. Hematol.
Abstract
Despite its extraordinary efficacy, administration of the major anti-malarial drug artemisinin leads to anemia, and the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms are not well understood. Here, we report the effects of artemisinin on erythroid development and apoptosis in zebrafish and human cells. By performing a small-molecule screen with zebrafish embryos, we found that artemisinin treatment depleted red blood cells and slightly decreased definitive hematopoietic stem cells, but had no effect on primitive hematopoietic progenitors; and RNA-Seq revealed that artemisinin suppressed a cluster of genes in the heme biosynthesis and globin synthesis pathways. Furthermore, artemisinin induced apoptosis in erythrocytes in zebrafish embryos as assessed by TUNEL assay and preferentially acted on differentiated erythrocytes by elevating caspase-8 and caspase-9 activity in differentiated human K562 cells. Consistently, artemisinin suppressed the ectopic expression of erythroid genes in jak2aV581F-injected embryos, a zebrafish model for human polycythemia vera in which the bone marrow makes too many red blood cells. Taken together, our data suggested that artemisinin, in addition to killing parasites, has a direct action on differentiated erythrocytes other than definitive hematopoietic stem cells and causes erythroid apoptosis by interfering with the heme biosynthesis pathway in zebrafish and human cells.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping