The most crucial complication related to doxorubicin (DOX) therapy is nonspecific cytotoxic effect on healthy normal cells. The clinical use of this broad-spectrum chemotherapeutic agent is restricted due to development of severe form of cardiotoxicity, myelosuppression, and genotoxicity which interfere with therapeutic schedule, compromise treatment outcome and may lead to secondary malignancy. 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM) is a naturally occurring plant alkaloid formed by the hydrolysis of indolylmethyl glucosinolate (glucobrassicin). Therefore, the present study was undertaken to investigate the protective role of DIM against DOX-induced toxicity in mice. DOX was administered (5 mg/kg b.w., i.p.) and DIM was administered (25 mg/kg b.w., p.o.) in concomitant and 15 days pretreatment schedule. Results showed that DIM significantly attenuated DOX-induced oxidative stress in the cardiac tissues by reducing the levels of free radicals and lipid peroxidation, and by enhancing the level of glutathione (reduced) and the activity of antioxidant enzymes. The chemoprotective potential of DIM was confirmed by histopathological evaluation of heart and bone marrow niche. Moreover, DIM considerably mitigated DOX-induced clastogenicity, DNA damage, apoptosis, and myeloid hyperplasia in bone marrow niche. In addition, oral administration of DIM significantly (p < .05) stimulated the Nrf2-mediated activation of antioxidant response element (ARE) pathway and promoted expression of ARE-driven cytoprotective proteins, HO-1, NQO1, and glutathione-S-transferase (GST). In connection with that, DIM significantly attenuated DOX-induced apoptosis by upregulation of Bcl-2 expression and downregulation of Bax and caspase-3 expression. Thus, this study suggests that DIM has promising chemoprotective efficacy against DOX-induced toxicity and indicates its future use as an adjuvant in chemotherapy.
Cisplatin (CDDP) is one of the first-line anticancer drugs indicated for use against various form of human malignancies; but, the therapeutic outcome of CDDP chemotherapy is limited due to the development of myelosuppression and genotoxicity which may lead to secondary cancer. Induction of oxidative stress in normal host cells is thought to be responsible for these adverse effects. Therefore, in search of a potential chemoprotectant, an oraganovanadium compound, viz., vanadium(III)-l-cysteine (VC-III) was evaluated against CDDP-induced clastogenicity and cytotoxicity in bone marrow cells of Swiss albino mice. CDDP was administered intraperitoneally (5mg/kg body weight [b.w.]) and VC-III was given by oral gavage (1mg/kg b.w.) in concomitant and pretreatment schedule. The results showed that VC-III administration significantly (P < 0.001) enhanced cell proliferation and inhibited apoptosis in the bone marrow niche indicating recovery of CDDP-induced myelosuppression. VC-III also significantly (P < 0.001) decreased the percentage of chromosomal aberrations, the frequency of micronuclei formation and the extent of DNA damage. The observed antigenotoxic and cytoprotective effect of VC-III was attributed to its attenuation of free radicals status and restoration of oxidised and reduced glutathione levels. These results suggest that VC-III is a potential candidate for future development as a chemoprotective agent against chemotherapy-associated primary and secondary complications.
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