Doxorubicin is a highly effective anti-cancer chemotherapy agent, but its usage is limited by its cardiotoxicity. To develop a drug that prevents the cardiac toxicity of doxorubicin while preserving its anti-tumor potency, we established a doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy model in zebrafish that recapitulated the cardiomyocyte apoptosis and contractility decline observed in patients. Using this model, we screened 3000 compounds and discovered that visnagin (VIS) and diphenylurea (DPU) rescue cardiac performance and circulatory defects caused by doxorubicin treatment in zebrafish. VIS and DPU reduced doxorubicin-induced apoptosis in cultured cardiomyocytes and in vivo in zebrafish and mouse hearts. Furthermore, VIS treatment improved cardiac contractility in doxorubicin-treated mice. Importantly, VIS and DPU caused no reduction in the chemotherapeutic efficacy of doxorubicin in several cultured tumor lines or in zebrafish and mouse xenograft models. Using affinity chromatography, we discovered that VIS binds to mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase (MDH2), one of the key enzymes in the tricarboxylic acid cycle. As with VIS, treatment with the MDH2 inhibitors mebendazole, thyroxine, and iodine prevented doxorubicin cardiotoxicity, as did treatment with malate itself, suggesting that modulation of MDH2 activity is responsible for VIS’s cardioprotective effects. Taken together, this study identified VIS and DPU as potent cardioprotective compounds and implicates MDH2 as a previously undescribed, druggable target for doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy.

Organophosphates are a class of highly toxic chemicals that includes many pesticides and chemical weapons. Exposure to organophosphates, either through accidents or acts of terrorism, poses a significant risk to human health and safety. Existing antidotes, in use for over 50 years, have modest efficacy and undesirable toxicities. Therefore, discovering new organophosphate antidotes is a high priority. Early life stage zebrafish exposed to organophosphates exhibit several phenotypes that parallel the human response to organophosphates, including behavioral deficits, paralysis, and eventual death. Here, we have developed a high-throughput zebrafish screen in a 96-well plate format to find new antidotes that counteract organophosphate-induced lethality. In a pilot screen of 1200 known drugs, we identified 16 compounds that suppress organophosphate toxicity in zebrafish. Several in vitro assays coupled with liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry–based metabolite profiling enabled determination of mechanisms of action for several of the antidotes, including reversible acetylcholinesterase inhibition, cholinergic receptor antagonism, and inhibition of bioactivation. Therefore, the in vivo screen is capable of discovering organophosphate antidotes that intervene in distinct pathways. These findings suggest that zebrafish screens might be a broadly applicable approach for discovering compounds that counteract the toxic effects of accidental or malicious poisonous exposures.