Fig 5. Predicted effects of the treatment with weekly doses of 30μM of DOX.

One dose is not sufficient to trigger the vicious cycle responsible for chronic cardiotoxicity. With four doses, the vicious cycle is triggered but the progression is slow. With seven doses, a faster progression is observed and the predicted reduction in mtDNA content is within the error of the experimental data used to fit the model’s parameters [15]. With ten doses a fast deterioration and collapse in mitochondrial function is observed.