RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Amelioration of Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity by an Anticancer-Antioxidant Dual-Function Compound, HO-3867 JF Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics JO J Pharmacol Exp Ther FD American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics SP 350 OP 357 DO 10.1124/jpet.111.183681 VO 339 IS 2 A1 Alex Dayton A1 Karuppaiyah Selvendiran A1 Sarath Meduru A1 Mahmood Khan A1 M. Lakshmi Kuppusamy A1 Shan Naidu A1 Tamás Kálai A1 Kálmán Hideg A1 Periannan Kuppusamy YR 2011 UL http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/339/2/350.abstract AB Doxorubicin (DOX) is a drug commonly used for the treatment of cancer. The development of resistance to DOX is common, and high cumulative doses cause potentially lethal cardiac side effects. HO-3867 (3,5-bis(4-fluorobenzylidene)-1-[(2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-2,5-dihydro-1-hydroxy-pyrrol-3-yl)methyl]piperidin-4-one), a synthetic curcumin analog, has been shown to exhibit both anticancer and cardioprotective effects. However, its cardioprotection in the setting of a conventional cancer therapy has not been established. This work investigated the use of HO-3867 and DOX to achieve a complementary outcome, i.e., increased toxicity toward cancer cells, and reduced cardiac toxicity. Combination treatment was investigated using DOX-resistant MCF-7 breast cancer cells [MCF-7 multidrug-resistant (MDR)] and BALB/c mice. Lower doses of HO-3867 and DOX (5 and 2.5 μM, respectively) reduced viability of MCF-7 MDR cells to an extent significantly greater than that when either drug was used alone, an effect equivalent to that induced by exposure to 50 μM DOX. In normal cardiac cells, the loss of viability from combination treatment was significantly lower than that induced by 50 μM DOX. Increases in apoptotic markers, e.g., cleaved caspase-3, and decreases in fatty acid synthase and pAkt expressions were observed by Western blotting. Mice treated with both HO-3867 and DOX showed significant improvement in cardiac functional parameters compared with mice treated with DOX alone. Reduced expression of Bcl-2 and pAkt was observed in mice treated with DOX alone, whereas mice given combination treatment showed levels similar to control. The study indicates that combination treatment of HO-3867 and DOX is a viable option for treatment of cancer with reduced cardiotoxic side effects.