Abstract

BENEFICIAL EFFECT OF CAPSAICIN ON ACUTE DOXORUBICIN INDUCED CARDIOTOXICITY IN MICE: POSSIBLE ROLE OF OXIDATIVE STRESS

Mihir K. Patel and Anita A. Mehta*

ABSTRACT

Doxorubicin has been widely used in various cancers including leukemia, sarcoma and breast cancers. Despite its clinical efficacy in wide range of cancers, its utilization has becoming a limited due to cardiotoxicity, which has been mainly associated with oxidative stress and apoptosis of heart tissue and resulting in Heart failure. Capsaicin being a pungent ingredient from hot chili pepper has been remaining an immense area of research for its beneficial antioxidant activity and shown to reduced oxidative stress. The current investigation aims to target the effect of capsaicin against DXR-induced cardiotoxicity in mice using biochemical and histopathological approaches. Capsaicin (1mg/kg/day and 2mg/kg/day) was administered intraperitoneally (i.p.) for 10 days and on day 8 DXR (20mg/kg, i.p.) was injected. After 72 h of administration of DXR i.e on day 11 study was terminated. Mice treated with DXR exhibited cardiotoxicity which was confirmed by elevation of serum CK-MB and LDH, tissue malondialdehyde (MDA) and decreased level of antioxidants enzymes (SOD, CAT and GSH). Treatment with capsaicin (1mg/kg, i.p.) exhibited significant improvement in CK-MB, LDH, MDA and total antioxidant enzymes levels. Histopathological examination revealed that cardiac damage with DXR was reversed with capsaicin + DXR treatment. These results suggest that capsaicin treatment involves cardioprotection against acute doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in mice and this effect may be because of antioxidant potential of capsaicin.

Keywords: cardiotoxicity, Histopathological, malondialdehyde, Capsaicin, Doxorubicin, TRPV1 channel.