1. Academic Validation
  2. Dkk1 exacerbates doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity by inhibiting the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

Dkk1 exacerbates doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity by inhibiting the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

  • J Cell Sci. 2019 May 16;132(10):jcs228478. doi: 10.1242/jcs.228478.
Liying Liang 1 2 Yalin Tu 1 Jing Lu 3 2 Panxia Wang 1 2 Zhen Guo 1 2 Qianqian Wang 1 2 Kaiteng Guo 1 2 Rui Lan 1 2 Hong Li 4 Peiqing Liu 3 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China.
  • 2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Design and Evaluation, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China.
  • 3 Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China liupq@mail.sysu.edu.cn lujing0504@126.com.
  • 4 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510006, P. R. China.
Abstract

The Cancer clinical therapy of doxorubicin (Dox) treatment is limited by its life-threatening cardiotoxic effects. Dickkopf-1 (Dkk1), the founding and best-studied member of the Dkk family, functions as an antagonist of canonical Wnt/β-catenin. Dkk1 is considered to play a broad role in a variety of biological processes, but its effects on Dox-induced cardiomyopathy are poorly understood. Here, we found that the level of Dkk1 was significantly increased in Dox-treated groups, and this increase exacerbated Dox-induced cardiomyocyte Apoptosis and mitochondrial dysfunction. Overexpressing Dkk1 aggravated Dox-induced cardiotoxicity in H9C2 cells. Similar results were detected when adding active Dkk1 protein extracellularly. Conversely, adding specific antibody blocking extracellular Dkk1 attenuated the cardiotoxic response to Dox. Adenovirus encoding Dkk1 was transduced through intramyocardial injection and exacerbated Dox-induced cardiomyocyte Apoptosis, mitochondrial damage and heart injury in vivo Furthermore, Wnt/β-catenin signaling was inhibited during Dox-induced cardiotoxicity, and the re-activation of β-catenin prevented the effect of overexpressed Dkk1 and Dox-induced cardiotoxicity. In conclusion, these results reveal the crucial role of the Dkk1-Wnt/β-catenin signaling axis in the process of Dox-induced cardiotoxicity and provide novel insights into the potential mechanism of cardiomyopathy caused by clinical application of Dox.

Keywords

Apoptosis; Cardiomyopathy; Dkk1; Doxorubicin; Mitochondria; Wnt/β-catenin.

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