Objective: Cancer is the second most common non-communicable disease group in the world and its frequency is increasing. In parallel, side effects of drugs used in cancer treatment are frequently encountered. Doxorubicin (DOX) is one of the most effective multi-purpose anticancer drugs. However, its use is significantly limited due to the risk of cardiotoxicity. Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors are a group of antidiabetic drugs that have been shown to reduce cardiovascular events. Our aim is to examine the preventive effect of dapagliflozin on DOX-induced cardiac damage.
Subjects and methods: We used 30 albino rats. 20 of 30 rats were administered doxorubicin for cardiomyopathy model. The rats in the DOX arm were divided into two groups: those given penicillin and placebo. After the rats were terminated, tissues were prepared for histopathological and immunohistochemical examination. TNF-α, pro-BNP, troponin T and plasma FGF-21 levels were also measured in plasma.
Results: The mean concentrations of cTnT and pro-BNP in the plasma of the DOX treated rats demonstrated a significantly higher value compared to the control group. Treatment with dapagliflozin caused a significant reduction in plasma cTnT, pro-BNP and TNF-α levels concentrations compared to the DOX control group (p < 0.001). The group of rats treated with dapagliflozin was effective in significantly decreasing the FGF-21 concentration and the percentage of fibronectin immunoexpression compared to the DOX control group (p < 0.0001).
Conclusions: This study revealed, for the first time, that dapagliflozin can improve DOX-induced cardiac dysfunction and pathological changes in non-diabetic rats. This result has shown that dapaglifozin, may be promising in terms of preventing cardiac damage that may develop in cancer treatment.