ABSTRACT
Many antitumor drugs cause “on treatment” cardio toxicity or introduce a measurable risk of delayed cardiovascular events. The problem of anthracycline-induced cardio toxicity has been around for some 40 years. Doxorubicin (DOX) is an anthracycline derivative used as an anticancer agent. However, its clinical use is limited due to its severe cardio toxic manifestations. The present aim is to evaluate the protective role of Fermented Papaya Preparation (FPP) in combating doxorubicin induced cardio-toxicity/oxidative stress. Female Wistar rats were pretreated with FPP (100 mg/kgbw or 250 mg/kgbw) or saline daily for 28 consecutive days followed by doxorubicin (10 mg/kgbw) induction for next 2 days. Results indicated that pretreatment with FPP significantly decreased serum levels of CK-MB and LDH cardiac marker enzymes. Further, FPP supplementation significantly increased SOD, GSH-Px and GSH (p<0.05) while decreased Malondialdehyes and Catalase levels in heart. Histological observations demonstrated that FPP pretreatment attenuated DOX induced myofribillar derangement and vascular congestion in heart tissue. Thus our results suggest that FPP exhibits significant preclinical potential in combating DOX induced oxidative stress.