Comparative Evaluation of the Preventive Effects of Citral, Silymarin, Thymoquinone, and Curcumin on 5-Fluorouracil-Induced Cardiac and Pulmonary Toxicity in Rats.
Tohid Zahed, Nasrollah Ahmadi, Mohammad Foad Noorbakhsh, Nazifi Saeed, Oryan Ahmad
{"title":"Comparative Evaluation of the Preventive Effects of Citral, Silymarin, Thymoquinone, and Curcumin on 5-Fluorouracil-Induced Cardiac and Pulmonary Toxicity in Rats.","authors":"Tohid Zahed, Nasrollah Ahmadi, Mohammad Foad Noorbakhsh, Nazifi Saeed, Oryan Ahmad","doi":"10.3831/KPI.2024.27.4.277","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>5-fluorouracil chemotherapy is a highly recommended treatment for different types of solid tumors. However, this treatment can have severe side effects on the heart and lungs. In this study, we compared the protective effects of citral, silymarin, thymoquinone, and curcumin against 5-fluorouracil-induced toxicity in the heart and lungs of rats.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>56 healthy adult male rats were randomly assigned to seven experimental groups (n = 8), including healthy and carrier (dimethylsulfoxide) groups, 5-fluorouracil, citral group, silymarin group, thymoquinone group, and curcumin group. Blood samples and representative tissue specimens of the heart and lungs were immediately collected at the end of the experiment to measure the biochemical parameters, conduct histopathological studies, and analyze antioxidant activity, respectively.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The intraperitoneal administration of 5-fluorouracil caused cardiotoxicity, as evidenced by elevated serum levels of creatine phosphokinase, creatine kinase-MB (p < 0.05), and lactate dehydrogenase (p < 0.05). Besides, 5-fluorouracil increased malondealdehyde levels, indicating a lipid peroxidation index and a decrease in the total antioxidant capacity index in the cardiac and pulmonary tissues (p < 0.05) of the animals. The preventive and therapeutic use of all the above compounds, in combination with 5-fluorouracil, led to a decrease in the mentioned cardiac serum biomarkers and malondealdehyde in the animals (p < 0.05). In addition, all the therapeutic compounds increased total antioxidant capacity in the heart and lungs (p < 0.05), indicating a high antioxidant capacity of these biological substances in ameliorating the resultant oxidative and histologic damages.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our study indicated that the natural compounds citral, silymarin, thymoquinone, and curcumin, when combined with 5-fluorouracil, could minimize the histopathological and biochemical changes caused by 5-fluorouracil treatment in the heart and pulmonary tissues likely via antioxidant mechanisms. These products can be useful and effective in chemotherapy patients by reducing the potential adverse effects of 5-fluorouracil administration.</p>","PeriodicalId":16769,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pharmacopuncture","volume":"27 4","pages":"277-286"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11656059/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Pharmacopuncture","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3831/KPI.2024.27.4.277","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"INTEGRATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objectives: 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy is a highly recommended treatment for different types of solid tumors. However, this treatment can have severe side effects on the heart and lungs. In this study, we compared the protective effects of citral, silymarin, thymoquinone, and curcumin against 5-fluorouracil-induced toxicity in the heart and lungs of rats.
Methods: 56 healthy adult male rats were randomly assigned to seven experimental groups (n = 8), including healthy and carrier (dimethylsulfoxide) groups, 5-fluorouracil, citral group, silymarin group, thymoquinone group, and curcumin group. Blood samples and representative tissue specimens of the heart and lungs were immediately collected at the end of the experiment to measure the biochemical parameters, conduct histopathological studies, and analyze antioxidant activity, respectively.
Results: The intraperitoneal administration of 5-fluorouracil caused cardiotoxicity, as evidenced by elevated serum levels of creatine phosphokinase, creatine kinase-MB (p < 0.05), and lactate dehydrogenase (p < 0.05). Besides, 5-fluorouracil increased malondealdehyde levels, indicating a lipid peroxidation index and a decrease in the total antioxidant capacity index in the cardiac and pulmonary tissues (p < 0.05) of the animals. The preventive and therapeutic use of all the above compounds, in combination with 5-fluorouracil, led to a decrease in the mentioned cardiac serum biomarkers and malondealdehyde in the animals (p < 0.05). In addition, all the therapeutic compounds increased total antioxidant capacity in the heart and lungs (p < 0.05), indicating a high antioxidant capacity of these biological substances in ameliorating the resultant oxidative and histologic damages.
Conclusion: Our study indicated that the natural compounds citral, silymarin, thymoquinone, and curcumin, when combined with 5-fluorouracil, could minimize the histopathological and biochemical changes caused by 5-fluorouracil treatment in the heart and pulmonary tissues likely via antioxidant mechanisms. These products can be useful and effective in chemotherapy patients by reducing the potential adverse effects of 5-fluorouracil administration.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Pharmacopuncture covers a wide range of basic and clinical science research relevant to all aspects of the biotechnology of integrated approaches using both pharmacology and acupuncture therapeutics, including research involving pharmacology, acupuncture studies and pharmacopuncture studies. The subjects are mainly divided into three categories: pharmacology (applied phytomedicine, plant sciences, pharmacology, toxicology, medicinal plants, traditional medicines, herbal medicine, Sasang constitutional medicine, herbal formulae, foods, agricultural technologies, naturopathy, etc.), acupuncture (acupressure, electroacupuncture, laser acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, etc.), and pharmacopuncture (aqua-acupuncture, meridian pharmacopuncture, eight-principles pharmacopuncture, animal-based pharmacopuncture, mountain ginseng pharmacopuncture, bee venom therapy, needle embedding therapy, implant therapy, etc.). Other categories include chuna treatment, veterinary acupuncture and related animal studies, alternative medicines for treating cancer and cancer-related symptoms, etc. Broader topical coverage on the effects of acupuncture, the medical plants used in traditional and alternative medicine, pharmacological action and other related modalities, such as anthroposophy, homeopathy, ayurveda, bioelectromagnetic therapy, chiropractic, neural therapy and meditation, can be considered to be within the journal’s scope if based on acupoints and meridians. Submissions of original articles, review articles, systematic reviews, case reports, brief reports, opinions, commentaries, medical lectures, letters to the editor, photo-essays, technical notes, and book reviews are encouraged. Providing free access to the full text of all current and archived articles on its website (www.journal.ac), also searchable through a Google Scholar search.