article · Animals
Doxorubicin is a powerful chemotherapy drug whose clinical use is constrained by dose-dependent toxic effects on the heart. This investigation assessed whether an ethanolic extract of date palm pollen could mitigate doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in male Wistar albino rats. Administering the date palm pollen extract alongside doxorubicin partially protected the heart tissue. The botanical extract helped normalize changes in body and heart weight while reducing elevated serum cardiac injury markers, including aminotransferases, lactate dehydrogenase, and creatine kinase isoenzymes. It also moderated nitric oxide levels, decreased lipid peroxidation, and supported endogenous antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase. Furthermore, the extract curbed inflammatory markers and alleviated tissue damage, fibrosis, and cell death signaling pathways in cardiac tissues. These outcomes suggest the extract offers cardioprotective properties through combined antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic, and anti-apoptotic activities.
Chemotherapy drugs such as doxorubicin save lives but can cause severe, long-term heart damage that limits how much treatment a patient can safely receive. Demonstrating that natural plant extracts can alleviate heart injury, inflammation, and oxidative stress in animal models provides valuable insight into complementary protective strategies that could eventually help patients tolerate essential cancer treatments with fewer cardiac side effects.
This research is at an early experimental stage in animal models, meaning it is distant from clinical deployment. If validated through further pharmaceutical formulation and human trials, date palm pollen extract could serve as an active ingredient in supportive therapies or nutraceuticals designed to protect oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy. Pharmaceutical developers and oncology supportive care researchers would be the primary interested parties for subsequent translational development.
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Doxorubicin (DOX) has a potent antineoplastic efficacy and is considered a cornerstone of chemotherapy. However, it causes several dose-dependent cardiotoxic results, which has substantially restricted its clinical application. This study was intended to explore the potential ameliorative effect of date palm pollen ethanolic extract (DPPE) against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity and the mechanisms underlying it. Forty male Wistar albino rats were equally allocated into Control (CTR), DPPE (500 mg/kg bw for 4 weeks), DOX (2.5 mg/kg bw, intraperitoneally six times over 2 weeks), and DPPE + DOX-treated groups. Pre-coadministration of DPPE with DOX partially ameliorated DOX-induced cardiotoxicity as DPPE improved DOX-induced body and heart weight changes and mitigated the elevated cardiac injury markers activities of serum aminotransferases, lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, and creatine kinase-cardiac type isoenzyme. Additionally, the concentration of serum cardiac troponin I (cTnI), troponin T (cTnT), N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-pro BNP), and cytosolic calcium (Ca<sup>+2</sup>) were amplified. DPPE also alleviated nitrosative status (nitric oxide) in DOX-treated animals, lipid peroxidation and antioxidant molecules as glutathione content, and glutathione peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase activities and inflammatory markers levels; NF-κB p65, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6. As well, it ameliorated the severity of histopathological lesions, histomorphometric alteration and improved the immune-staining of the pro-fibrotic (TGF-β1), pro-apoptotic (caspase-3 and Bax), and anti-apoptotic (Bcl-2) proteins in cardiac tissues. Collectively, pre-coadministration of DPPE partially mitigated DOX-induced cardiac injuries via its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic, and anti-apoptotic potential.
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DOI: 10.3390/ani11030886
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