Sophocarpine attenuates doxorubicin-induced heart injury through inhibition of fibrosis

BACKGROUND: Doxorubicin (DOX) is a potent anti-cancer medication that is associated with numerous adverse effects, particularly concerning damage to the heart.METHODS: This study aimed to investigate the impact of sophocarpine (SOP) on DOX-induced heart injury through both in vivo and in vitro experiments. The experimental techniques employed encompassed echocardiography, hematoxylin/eosin (H&E) staining, Masson staining, immunohistochemical staining, western blotting, and so on.RESULTS: Echocardiography showed that SOP alleviated DOX-induced cardiac dysfunction, as evidenced by the improvements in both left ventricle ejection fraction and left ventricle fractional shortening. DOX caused upregulations of creatine kinase-MB and lactate dehydrogenase, while SOP decreased these indices. Staining methods such as H&E and Masson showed that SOP reversed the pathological changes induced by DOX. DOX elevated the expression levels of fibrosis-associated proteins such as Collagen I, Collagen III, α-SMA, Fibronectin, MMP-2, and MMP-9. However, SOP reversed these changes. Moreover, the study further revealed that SOP inhibited the TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway.CONCLUSIONS: These findings imply that SOP has the potential to mitigate DOX-induced heart injury by suppressing fibrosis. The underlying molecular mechanism may involve the inhibition of the TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway.