Oxidative stress has been considered as a major cause of cellular
injuries in a variety of clinical abnormalities, especially neural diseases. One of the effective ways to prevent the
reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediated cellular injury is dietary or
pharmaceutical augmentation of
free radical scavengers. In the present study, we describe the synthesis and characterization of a novel
cystine C(60) derivative (CFD). The compound was analyzed by FT-IR, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR, LC-MS and elemental analysis. It contains five
cystine moieties per C(60) molecule. This water-soluble amino-
fullerene derivative was able to scavenge both
superoxide and
hydroxyl radical with biocompatibility. We investigated its potential protective effects on
hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress and apoptotic death in cultured rat
pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells. Cells treated with
hydrogen peroxide underwent cytotoxicity and apoptotic death determined by MTT assay, flow cytometry analysis, PI/
Hoechst 33342 staining and
glutathione peroxidase assay. The CFD was able to reduce the accumulation of
reactive oxygen species and cellular damage caused by
hydrogen peroxide in PC12 cells. RF assay demonstrated that CFD could penetrate through the cell membrane and it has played its distinguished role in protecting PC12 cells against
hydrogen peroxide-induced cytotoxicity. The results suggest that CFD has the potential to prevent oxidative stress-induced cell death without evident toxicity. Hence, we can hypothesize that the protective effect of CFD on
hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis is related to its scavenger activity.