Anna Vanderpuye

• BSc (Hons) Pharmacology
• The inhibition of Doxorubicin metabolism by ACE Inhibitors

Doxorubicin is used in the treatment of breast cancer, leukaemias and lymphomas. Some patients treated with doxorubicin experience a side effect of toxicity to the heart. The conversion of doxorubicin to a metabolite, doxorubicinol, may be the cause of this cardiotoxicity, which limits the usefulness of doxorubicin treatment.
In this project we investigated whether ACE inhibitors, which might prevent doxorubicin cardiotoxicity, work by blocking doxorubicin metabolism. Formation of the toxic metabolite doxorubicinol was demonstrated, but was not blocked by ACE inhibitors such as captopril.  The protective action of ACE inhibitors is via an alternative mechanism, yet to be identified.

Funding Source: Northern Institute of Cancer Research