Colchicine Ameliorates Doxorubicin Cardiotoxicity Via Promoting Autophagic Flux

Doxorubicin (DOX) cardiotoxicity is an important factor of heart failure. The only clinically approved drug is dexrazoxane, while its side effect of secondary malignancies severely limited its application. It is urgent to find other alternative efficacious molecular for these chemotherapy patients. Colchicine is a safe and well tolerated anti-inflammation drug which also functions in attenuating the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. High dose of colchicine was reported block the autophagosome-lysosome fusion in cancer cells due to its destabilization effect to the microtubule system, while how colchicine affects the autophagic flux in cardiomyocytes is largely unknown. Recent years low dose of colchicine administration was reported helpful to the patients with pericarditis, postprocedural atrial fibrillation and coronary artery disease, most of the research attributed it to its anti-inflammation effect. Whether the autophagic flux regulated by colchicine also benefits to DOX induced heart failure remains unclear. Doxorubicin (DOX) administration was used to establish heart failure models in vivo and in vitro. Results showed that DOX blocked the autophagic vacuoles degradation, leading to damaged mitochondria and ROS accumulation. Heart failure characteristics were obviously improved after low dose of colchicine administration. Mechanistically, low dose of colchicine promoted the autolysosome degradation, cleared the damaged mitochondria, and ROS accumulation induced by the DOX and as a result attenuated DOX cardiotoxicity.