http://mend.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/24/7/1338
Doxorubicin, the anticancer drug is used for the treatment of several types of cancer. In many cases the clinical use of Dox is being held back because of its cardiotoxicity. Here the protective role of the AR pathway in the heart is being tested. This group is showing how activation of AR can counteract the damaging effect of Dox.
The nice thing about this is how we keep thinking of AR specifically in prostate cancer and as a drug target that we want to decrease its activation, and here we get an example of the positive role of AR and how targeting its activation in different types of tissues and different types of cancers can do good.
This paper established a connection between AR activity and cardioprotection against Dox. Since Dox is commonly used in clinical practice and its pharmacological infor. is already known, I think the animal studies and in vitro work can be enhanced by incorporating those infor. into the study design; e.g., the dosage and duration of Dox treatment.Also, it would be helpful to further show blocking AKT or modulating oxidative radicals impacts AR-conferred protection.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting because there are epidemiological studies that show that men who develop cancer have a lower risk of developing acute coronary heart disease (Yashin A.I. et al., Trade-off between cancer and aging: What role do other diseases play?, Journal: Mechanisms of Ageing and Development 130 (2009) 98-104).
ReplyDeleteThe authors in the epi study suggested that the anti-apoptotic mechanisms that facilitate cancer development might protect cardiac cells from ishemia-induced death. The authors also referenced another paper where individuals with mutant p53 and decreased apoptosis are overall more likely to die from cancer, though have a decreased risk of dying from heart disease.
The fact that AR protects against doxorubicin-induced cardiac apoptosis may mean that AR can protect against other insults that would cause apoptosis.