The cytotoxic drugs such as DOX are capable of causing cardiotoxicity due to generation of free radicals, lipid peroxidation, immune modulation and apoptosis. DOX also binds to several cellular and plasma proteins, modulating their functions [
44,
45]. Several models including isolated cardiomyocyte culture [
40,
46], mitochondrial preparation [
47] and animal model [
9] have been used to study the mechanism of DOX-mediated cardiotoxicity. Protein changes in any model may depend on the kind of secondary metabolites it generates [
48]. Also, DOX accumulates in the nucleus besides mitochondria, thus interfering with nuclear functions [
49]. The excessive amount of oxidant generated caused oxidative stress that is beyond the cellular antioxidant capacity, and therefore damages cell membranes due to lipid peroxidation and alters the signaling pathways and protein expression. As a consequence of this process, several proteins undergo changes that are critical for understanding DOX-induced damage. This study, using proteomic analysis, attempts to give insight into this process.
Among the proteins identified, lipocortin V (annexin V) is an annexin family protein that is found on the cytosolic side of the plasma membrane, and it is known to exhibit anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting the cytosolic phospholipase A
2 activity [
50]. Annexin V (along with other isoform II and VI) is overexpressed in end stage heart failure [
51], and it binds to phosphatidylserine (PS) exposed on the apoptotic cell surface [
52]. Alpha B-crystallin, a 22 KDa protein found in rat heart, is a stress inducible molecular chaperone and has been shown to salvage cardiomyocyte apoptosis [
53]. It is actually a functional small heat-shock protein induced by heat and other physiological stress and hyper-induced in neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's, Creutzfeldt-Jacob, and Parkinson's diseases [
54].
The ETF-QO / ETFDH couple accepts electrons (2 × 1e
-) from five acyl Co-A dehydrogenases and four amino acid catabolism products through ETF-β. DOX treatment is known to inhibit long chain fatty acid oxidation and transport across mitochondrial membrane [
55,
56]. Loss of ETF-β in the DOX-treated samples and low levels of ETFDH overexpression / modification detected in the 48 h sample could be a defense mechanism, as ETFDH is a nuclear encoded mitochondrial protein and is regulated by signaling from AMP-activated protein kinase that detect the low level ATP / AMP involved in fatty acid oxidation and amino acid oxidation. Both of these are catabolic processes that result in generation of energy to compensate for the loss of mitochondrial function [
57]. MMSDH is an aldehyde dehydrogenase in the valine and pyrimidine catabolic pathway. Fatty acid acylation via myristate (C14:0) is a covalent modification of the active site cysteine that inhibits the enzyme activity, and the level of inactivity varies with the metabolic state of the mitochondria [
58]. MMSDH has been identified as a marker for aging heart where it is nitrated [
59]. Deregulation of this protein was not previously reported, and thus the large extent of downregulation reported here by DOX is a novel finding. The significance of its downregulation might be consistent with the problems with fatty acid metabolism involving ETF-β / ETFDH, deregulation of ETC, and loss of mitochondria that is damaged with DOX treatment. The alternative explanation is that the modified (acylated / nitrated) protein migrated differerently than the original protein. The role of nitrative stress in DOX-induced cardiotoxicity has been reported (
60,
61). Taken together, protein modification by nitration appears to play a crucial role in DOX mediated cardiomyocyte cell death.
The cardiomyopathy results also from a loss of F-actin network (due to depolymerization) which coordinates troponin (F-actin binding protein) involved in controlling contraction. Thus the modifications of troponin T such as phosphorylation could be a manifestation of DOX-induced injury. DOX treatment suppresses alpha actin, troponin I (resulting in myofibrillar loss) [
29], sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca
2+ ATPase, calcium gated Ca
2+ release channel (resulting in impaired Ca
2+ handling and perturbation of contraction and relaxation cycle) [
62], Rieske Fe-S protein, ADP / ATP translocase, phosphofructokinase, creatine kinase M isoform (resulting in energy impairment) [
31]. It is worth noting that the animals treated for 10 wks with DOX did not survive well with the treatment plan. In this animal model, the anti-apoptotic protein HSP27 that confer resistance to DOX and other anticancer drugs was downregulated [
63,
64]. Suppression of this protein in the animal model in the presence of DOX is of interest with respect to the apoptotic mechanism. In our cardiomyocyte model, p38 is highlighted in the overexpressed protein list, and the, blot analysis shows that this protein gets phosphorylated with time upon DOX treatment (data not shown). Phosphorylation activates p38 kinase, and it in turn phosphorylates many substrates including HSP27 thus regulating apoptosis [
65,
66].
Doxorubicin-treated cardiomyocyte mitochondrial preparation showed a small but significant decrease in the complex III activity, while the complex I activity remained unaffected (data not shown). It is possible that under our experimental conditions, superoxide generated could be at both complexes I and III, but complex III is also affected by DOX effects on ETFDH and ETF-β. We attempted to confirm if the change in ETFDH levels are true overexpression of ETFDH or some modification by testing the untreated control and DOX-treated sample on a Western blot (data not shown) using an ETFDH antibody (kindly donated by Rikke K.J. Olsen, Aarhus University Hospital and Faculty of Health Sciences, Denmark). We could not detect any marked modification. There is, however, a quantitative increase in ETFDH levels in DOX-treated samples. Therefore it is possible that the ETF-QO protein levels and loss of ETF-β protein levels drastically affect complex III ability to function properly, thus increasing the chances of superoxide generated at this site. In addition, generation of superoxide at complex I site could be due to redox cycling of DOX. It would be interesting to obtain a direct evidence to prove this point, as superoxide generated at complex I and complex III (Q
i center) is released towards the matrix where glutathione and other oxidant protection machinery are present, while the superoxide generated from complex III (Q
o center- quinol oxidase) are released to the inner membrane side [
67,
68]. DOX also affects highly unsaturated fatty acids, desaturating and elongating enzymes that are involved in the biosynthesis of essential fatty acids [
69]. Increased ROS formation in the mitochondria triggers the intrinsic pathway that leads to the opening of transition pores, and the process is favored by oxidation of glutathione and other sulfhydryls [
70]. Events such as activation of BAK (BCL-2 antagonist / Killer 2) by BCL2-Homology (BH
3)-only proteins translocate to mitochondrial outer membrane. This results in the translocation of cytochrome
C to cytoplasm where it triggers the formation of apoptosome in association with Apaf1 (apoptotic protease activating factor 1) protein. Apoptosome activates caspase 9 which then activates the effector caspase 3 resulting in apoptosis.
Another important downregulated protein in response to DOX treatment was VDAC2. It is well known that VDAC2 plays a critical role in mitochondrial apoptosis. VDAC2 is a member of anion channel proteins (porins) residing in the outer mitochondrial membrane. These proteins are involved in regulation of metabolic interactions and solutes exchange between mitochondria and cytosol, and in regulating the permeabilization of outer mitochondrial membrane during apoptosis. Permeabilization of the membrane is known to initiate the release of cytochrome
c into the cytosol and initiate mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. VDAC2 is an isoform that is present in low abundance in the outer mitochondrial membrane and specifically interacts with a multidomain proapoptotic member of Bcl-2 family of proteins BAK (
71). This interaction prevents oligomerization of BAK, the event that leads to the formation of outer mitochondrial membrane pores and leaking of cytochrome c into the cytosol (
71). Genetic depletion of VDAC2 resulted in excessive BAK oligomerization and apoptotic cell death, while overexpression of this protein prevented BAK activation and inhibited mitochondrial pathway (
71,
72). On the other hand, other studies performed on mouse embryonic fibroblasts and other cell types, have shown that VDAC2 recruits BAK to the mitochondrial membrane and is required for BAX- and BID-induced apoptosis (
73,
74). The role of VDAC2 in the regulation of mitochondrial apoptotic pathway is cardiomyocytes is not known. Interestingly, another proteomic study reported upregulation of VDAC2 abundance in hepatoma cells as a result of the action of hepatocarcinogenic dioxin compound (
75). The fate of the regulation of VDAC2 expression in cardiomyocytes has not been described previously. It has been known from our previous publication that doxorubicin induces an abundant release of cytochrome
c into the cytosol in both adult and neonatal cardiomyocytes (
76). Changed expression of this protein by doxorubicin could clearly be an important factor regulating the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway in cardiomyocytes.
It is interesting to note that the proteomic changes in DOX-treated cardiomyocyte and rat heart are not similar. The exact reasons for this difference are not clear. However, the cultured myocytes were treated with DOX for 24 or 48 h, whereas in vivo cardiac tissues were harvested 7 days after the last injection. Under these conditions, no DOX was present in the cardiac tissues isolated from rats. In contrast, DOX was continuously present during in vitro cardiomyocyte cell culture experiments (thus generating oxy-radicals continuously). Thus, the difference between DOX-induced effects in cardiomyocyte culture and in vivo animals could be due to differences in the amount and duration of DOX exposure. Another reason for the observed difference might also be possibly due to the fact that the adult rat heart tissue has more protein in the whole tissue extract. Therefore, we investigated other methods of sample preparation to improve protein identification. The subcellular fractionation is a useful technique, but isolated fractions are often contaminated with other subcellular organelles. Charge fractionations have protein overlaps, and chromatographic fractionation requires a large amount of sample. On the contrary, solubilization techniques are simple, highly reproducible, and enrich low abundant proteins in an inexpensive and reproducible manner. It is also advantageous to further separate them on narrow-range pH strips to further resolve the proteins. Our experimental results in clearly document the advantage of such a technique which will help in identifying the changes occurring in the low abundant proteins.