A Critical Role for Neutral Sphingomyelinase-2 in Doxorubicin-induced Cardiotoxicity

Although Doxorubicin (Dox) is an effective chemotherapeutic, its clinical utility is limited by a cumulative dose-dependent cardiotoxicity. While mechanisms underlying this cardiotoxicity have been investigated, strategies targeting these pathways have had marginal effects or had potential to interfere with Dox’s anti-cancer activity. Sphingolipids (SL) are central to the chemotherapy response in multiple cancers, yet comparatively little is known about their role in non-transformed tissue, and actionable SL targets have not been identified. Here, we identified the SL enzyme neutral sphingomyelinase-2 (nSMase2) as a crucial downstream effector of Dox that is critical for chronic Dox-induced cardiotoxicity. In vitro studies showed that Dox treatment induces nSMase2 mRNA, protein, activity, and Cer accumulation in cardiomyocytes (CM) but not in cardiac fibroblasts. Mechanistically, nSMase2 induction was downstream of Top2B and p53, two previously identified molecular regulators of Dox-induced cardiotoxicity. In vivo studies in a chronic Dox model of cardiotoxicity found that loss of nSMase2 activity-null fro/fro mice were significantly protected from Dox-induced cardiac damage, exhibiting maintained ejection fraction, fractional shortening, and reduced left ventricle mass compared to wild-type littermates. Biologically, nSMase2 was dispensable for Dox-induced cell death but was important for Dox-induced CM senescence both in vitro and in vivo . Microarray analysis identified the dual specificity phosphatase DUSP4 as a downstream target of nSMase2 in vitro in Dox-treated CMs and in vivo in the chronic Dox-treated heart. Taken together, these results establish nSMase2 as a key component of the DNA damage response pathway in CMs and define a critical role for nSMase2 as a SL mediator of Dox-induced cardiotoxicity through effects on CM senescence. In addition to cementing a role for SLs in Dox effects in normal tissue, this study further advances nSMase2 as a target of interest for cardioprotection.