Non-invasive transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation improves myocardial performance in doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity

Aims: The clinical use of antitumour agent doxorubicin (DOX) is hampered by its dose-dependent cardiotoxicity. Development of highly efficient and safe adjuvant intervention for preventing DOX-induced adverse cardiac events is urgently needed. We aimed to investigate whether transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation (tVNS) plays a cardio-protective role in DOX-induced cardiotoxicity.

Methods and results: Healthy male adult Sprague Dawley rats were used in the experiment and were randomly divided into four groups including control, DOX, tVNS, and DOX+tVNS groups. A cumulative dose of 15 mg/kg DOX was intraperitoneally injected into rats to generate cardiotoxicity. Non-invasive tVNS was conducted for 6 weeks (30 min/day). After 6-week intervention, the indices from the echocardiography revealed that tVNS significantly improved left ventricular function compared to the DOX group. The increased malondialdehyde and Interleukin-1β, and decreased superoxide dismutase were observed in the DOX group, while tVNS significantly prevented these changes. From cardiac histopathological analysis, the DOX+tVNS group showed a mild myocardial damage, and decreases in cardiac fibrosis and myocardial apoptosis compared to the DOX group. Heart rate variability analysis showed that tVNS significantly inhibited DOX-induced sympathetic hyperactivity compared to the DOX group. Additionally, the results of RNA-sequencing analysis showed that there were 245 differentially expressed genes in the DOX group compared to the control group, among which 39 genes were down-regulated by tVNS and most of these genes were involved in immune system. Moreover, tVNS significantly down-regulated the relative mRNA expressions of chemokine-related genes and macrophages recruitment compared to the DOX group.

Conclusion: These results suggest that tVNS prevented DOX-induced cardiotoxicity by rebalancing autonomic tone, ameliorating cardiac dysfunction and remodelling. Notably, crosstalk between autonomic neuromodulation and innate immune cells macrophages mediated by chemokines might be involved in the underlying mechanisms.