Antitumour activity of crocetin in accordance to tumor incidence, antioxidant status, drug metabolizing enzymes and histopathological studies

Abstract

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related mortality worldwide. Crocetin, saffron plant derivative known to play a role in cancer chemoprevention. In the present study the effects of crocetin was tested against lung cancer-bearing mice in both pre-initiation and post-initiation periods. Healthy male Swiss albino mice (6-8 weeks old) were used throughout the study. Experiment was designed with the treatment regimen of crocetin [20 mg/kg body weight dissolved in dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO)] for 4 weeks before (pre-initiation) and from 12th week after Benzo(a) pyrene B(a)p (50 mg/kg body weight) induced lung carcinoma(post-initiation). The level of lipid peroxidation (LPO) and marker enzymes markedly increased in carcinogen administered animals, which was brought back to near normal by crocetin treatment. The activities of the enzymic antioxidants and glutathione metabolizing enzymes were decreased in B(a)p induced animals and increased upon drug treatment. Crocetin profoundly reverted back the pathological changes observed in cancerous animals. From the results crocetin proves to scavenge free radical and plays an important role in cellular function. Tumor incidence and histopathological studies proves crocetin is a potent antitumour agent.

Crocetin induces cytotoxicity and enhances vincristine-induced cancer cell death via p53-dependent and -independent mechanisms

“…A previous study has shown that crocetin suppresses TPA-induced expression of oncogenes in the mouse epidermis and inhibits TPA-induced skin carcinogenesis [23] . Another in vivo study has shown that crocetin displays antitumor activities in a lung cancer animal model by scavenging free radicals [24] . Because p53 is mutated in approximately 50% of human tumors, we selected three cancer cell lines with different statuses of p53 to study the anticancer effects of crocetin.…”

“…Several animal experiments have shown that high doses of crocetin in vivo are well-tolerated and relatively nontoxic with a potential to exert anticancer activities [11,14,24] . These data indicate the possibility that crocetin may be used at relatively high doses for cancer therapy.…”

Evaluation of antioxidant activities of bioactive compounds and various extracts obtained from saffron (Crocus sativus L.): a review

“…Interest in the impact of saffron carotenoids on human health is due to their high antioxidant capacity which was investigated by many researchers (Makhlouf et al 2011;Asdaq and Inamdar 2010;Karimi et al 2010;Bathaie and Mousavi 2010;TavakkolAfshari et al 2008;Kanakis et al 2007;Soeda et al 2007;Magesh et al 2006;Ochiai et al 2004;Selim et al 2000;Verma and Bordia 1998;Nair et al 1995). One of hypothesis for the modes of anti carcinogenic and anti tumor actions of saffron has been proposed the inhibitory effect on free radical chain reactions (Makhlouf et al 2011).…”

Reduction of Mitochondrial Oxidative Damage and Improved Mitochondrial Efficiency by Administration of Crocetin against Benzo[a]pyrene Induced Experimental Animals

“…8) Crocetin is a saffron plant carotenoid, which acts in various ways on biological system, numerous studies have demonstrated a variety of pharmacological actions for crocetin. [8][9][10] Therefore an attempt was made to study the modulating role of crocetin in lung mitochondria. The eight and eighteen weeks of crocetin treatment was used to study the oxidative mitochondrial dysfunction of B[a]p in the experimental animals.…”