Artemisinin inhibits neuronal ferroptosis in Alzheimer’s disease models by targeting KEAP1

Ferroptosis, a form of cell death characterized by lipid peroxidation, is involved in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer´s disease (AD). Recent studies have shown that a first-line antimalarial drug artemisinin is effective to counteract AD pathology. In this study, we investigated the protective effect of artemisinin against neuronal ferroptosis and the underlying mechanisms. In hippocampal HT22 cells, pretreatment with artemisinin dose-dependently protected against Erastin-induced cell death with an EC₅₀ value of 5.032 µM, comparable to the ferroptosis inhibitor ferrostatin-1 (EC₅₀ = 4.39 µM). We demonstrated that artemisinin (10 μM) significantly increased the nuclear translocation of Nrf2 and upregulated SLC7A11 and GPX4 in HT22 cells. Knockdown of Nrf2, SLC7A11 or GPX4 prevented the protective action of artemisinin, indicating that its anti-ferroptosis effect is mediated by the Nrf2-SLC7A11-GPX4 pathway. Molecular docking and Co-Immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) analysis revealed that artemisinin competitively binds with KEAP1, promoting the dissociation of KEAP1-Nrf2 complex and inhibiting the ubiquitination of Nrf2. Intrahippocampal injection of imidazole-ketone-Erastin (IKE) induced ferroptosis in mice accompanied by cognitive deficits evidenced by lower preference for exploration of new objects and new object locations in the NOR and NOL tests. Artemisinin (5, 10 mg/kg, i.p.) dose-dependently inhibited IKE-induced ferroptosis in hippocampal CA1 region and ameliorated learning and memory impairments. Moreover, we demonstrated that artemisinin reversed Aβ_1-42-induced ferroptosis, lipid peroxidation and glutathione depletion in HT22 cells, primary hippocampal neurons, and 3×Tg mice via the KEAP1-Nrf2 pathway. Our results demonstrate that artemisinin is a novel neuronal ferroptosis inhibitor that targets KEAP1 to activate the Nrf2-SLC7A11-GPX4 pathway.