Doxorubicin (Dox) has been used for more than four decades to treat cancer, particularly solid tumours and haematological malignancies. However, the administration of this drug is a matter of concern in the clinical community, since Dox therapy is commonly associated with dose-dependent cardiotoxicity. Attempts at alleviating drug generated cardiac damage using naturally occurring compounds with radical scavenging property are a promising area of research. p-Coumaric acid (pCA) is one such compound which has significant antiradical scavenging effect. This study aims to investigate the effect of pre and co-administration of pCA on mitigating or preventing Dox induced cardiotoxicity in vitro using H9c2 cardiomyoblast cell lines. Addition of pCA and Dox were performed for both treatment and control sets on H9c2 cells. Sulphorhodamine B assay was used to study the cytotoxic effect of pCA and Dox. The effect of the drug on cell morphology, cell viability and nuclear damage was studied using AO/EB and DAPI staining. ROS production was studied using DCFH-DA staining. Mitochondrial membrane potential and intracellular calcium levels were assessed by rhodamine 123 and Fura 2AM staining. pCA showed strong ABTS cation radical scavenging activity and FRAP activity in a dose dependent manner. The results showed that Dox has significant cytotoxic effect in a dose dependent manner while pCA, even at higher concentrations did not display any significant cytotoxicity on H9c2 cells. Both pre treatment and co- administration of pCA reduced the drug induced toxic effects on cell morphology and enhanced the number of viable cells in comparison to the Dox treated cells as evident from the AO/EB and DAPI staining images. The Dox induced ROS production was found to be significantly reduced in pCA pre-treated and co-administered cells. Dox induced changes in mitochondrial membrane potential and intracellular calcium levels were remarkably improved following pre and co-treatment of H9c2 cells with pCA. These results clearly suggest that pre-treatment and co-administration of pCA is a promising therapeutic intervention in managing Dox mediated cardiotoxicity.

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