5FU is a pyrimidine anti-metabolite and widely used for various malignant disorders including gastrointestinal, breast, neck, head, colon, and pancreatic cancers. Despite its vast therapeutic uses, it is well known to have severe cardiotoxic effects. Searching for new protective therapies to reduce these harmful effects is highly required 21.
We aimed in our study to reduce 5FU induced cardiotoxicity using FEN and study the different mechanisms involved in such protection. 5FU given group showed marked increases in serum LDH, CK-MB, ALT, AST, MDA, IL6, STAT, caspase3 level with marked tissue damage as shown in the histopathological features. However, there is significant decrease in GSH, TAC, PPARα expression. Interestingly, the current findings showed that FEN coadministration with 5FU had marked cardioprotective effect mediated mainly via upregulation of PPARα, ROS scavenging, suppression of inflammation, oxidative stress, apoptosis and modulation of IL6/STAT pathway.
Myocardium contains high concentrations of diagnostic markers released into the extracellular fluid during cardiac damage such as serum CK-MB, LDH, ALT and AST. Assay of the CK-MB isoenzyme activity is the most specific indicator for cardiac injury in serum. The increased activity of serum CK-MB isoenzyme reflects the alterations in the plasma membrane integrity and permeability 12.
In the present study, 5FU treated rats showed a significant elevation in the activity of serum CK-MB, LDH, ALT, AST levels indicating 5FU induced myocardial necrotic damage and the leakiness of the plasma membrane. This is in accordance with Lamberti et al 1; Desai et al 22.
Different mechanisms of cardiotoxicity are proposed, including direct toxic action on myocytes, coronary vasospasm and thrombogenic effects. Moreover, 5FU induces endothelial damage, inflammatory reaction and myofibril necrosis. Impairment of Krebs’ cycle and energy production within the myocytes is another theory of 5FU induced damage. Emerging evidence indicated the marked involvement of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of 5FU-induced cardiac injury via excessive release of free radicals and ROS 12.
5-FU-induced cytotoxicity is linked to the enhanced ROS formation and superoxide anion (O− 2) production. As a consequence, there is triggering of apoptotic program and cardiomyocyte damage. These ROS attack any molecules, but their main target is the polyenoic fatty acids within cell membranes forming peroxyl radicals causing a chain of reactions of membrane lipid peroxidation and myocardial necrosis. MDA is used for detection of membrane lipid peroxidation. It was elevated in the hearts of guinea pig 23 and rat 24 after 5FU-treatment. The is in agreement with our results that showed significant increase of MDA in addition to depletion of GSH and TAC due to marked increase in oxidative stress and excessive release of ROS. These findings are in line with other previous reports 12, 25.
Increased IL6 signaling in the myocardium mediates cardiac hypertrophy, decreases contractile function, heart failure and diabetic cardiomyopathy. Interestingly, the IL6-driven decrease in cardiac function is associated with the JAK/STAT signaling. This pathway triggers multiple signals involved in homeostasis and inflammation. The JAK-STAT signaling also plays a central role in transducing stress and growth signals in the cardiac disorders. JAK and STAT proteins are activated through ligand binding, after that phosphorylation and formation of the homo or heterodimers occurred. They translocate into the nucleus where their ability to regulate gene expression 26.
In mammals, the JAK/STAT pathway transduces signals for a wide variety of cytokines and growth factors such as IL-1β, AngII, TNF-α, IL-6 and IFN-γ, all of which are involved in cardiac disorders. Therefore; regulation of IL6/STAT pathway is so important in controlling 5FU induced cardiotoxicity and an essential target to prevent such damage and preserve the cardiac tissue. The same was found in our model that showed increased IL6/STAT pathway expression in 5FU given group. However, coadministration of FEN had significant decrease in IL6/STAT pathway expression compared to 5FU given group alone. These results are supported by other studies2,5,26.
Proinflammatory cytokines e.g., TNF-α and IL6 are responsible for stimulation of the inflammatory/apoptotic pathways including caspase mediated apoptosis. Several caspases are highly involved in the early stages of apoptosis. Caspase3 is one member of this family and it is responsible for the initiation of the apoptotic process. It is activated by upstream caspase-8 and caspase-9 27,28. The current findings demonstrated that 5FU could induce proinflammatory cytokines as IL6/STAT signaling pathway followed by activation of the apoptotic pathway as confirmed by increased caspase3, the reliable indices of apoptosis. The same was found with Lamberti et al 1; Arab et al 29; Muhammad et al 30.
We found that there is marked improvement and normalization of 5FU-induced cardiac injury on coadministration of FEN. There are significant decreases in serum CK-MB, LDH, ALT, AST, MDA, caspase3, IL6, STAT. However, there are significant increases in TAC, GSH, PPARα gene expression.
These results were further supported by the histopathological findings which exhibited normal structure with mild inflammatory cell infiltration in FEN given group. This is in line with Krysiak et al 31; Jen et al 32; Khan et al 33. Protective effect of FEN may be attributed to its pleotropic effects in form of upregulation of PPARα, anti-oxidant, ant-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects and inhibition of one of the most critical pathways IL6/STAT pathway that is highly involved in mediating 5FU induced cardiac damage. This is in line with Khan et al 33; Wang et al 34; Huang et al 35. Further studies are highly recommended to examine FEN cardiopreserving properties in patients receiving 5FU.