Aristolochic acids exposure was not the main cause of liver tumorigenesis in adulthood

Skullcapflavone II, a novel NQO1 inhibitor, alleviates aristolochic acid I-induced liver and kidney injury in mice

“…The proliferation and apoptosis of cells were not affected by SFII alone at the therapeutic dose of 5 μM in vitro. Furthermore, in adult mice renal fibrosis model, AAI caused intensive weight loss of mice as previous report indicated [ 6 ]. There was no significant change of the body weight in mice pretreated with SFII.…”

“…Previous study found that the adult mouse liver was not the principal target of AAI-related toxicity. ALT and AST levels were barely elevated after 4 months of consecutive AAI treatment [ 6 ]. In this study, when adult and infant mice (at the age of 14 days) were injected with PBS (as a negative control), diethylnitrosamine (DEN, as a positive control) or AAI (20 mg/kg) and sacrificed after 24 h. AAI scarcely caused DNA damage in the liver of adult mice, while it induced an upregulation of γ-H2AX in the liver of infant mice (Supplementary Fig.…”

“…Our preceding study demonstrated that AAI could induce liver tumors when objected to infant mice [ 6 ]. To further explore whether SFII could directly suppress genotoxic of AAI, infant mice were pretreated with SFII in AAI-induced liver cancer model and then sacrificed 16 weeks after AAI administration (Fig.…”

“…AAs have been shown to cause renal damage [ 4 , 5 ], recognized as aristolochic acid nephropathy (AAN). Moreover, our previous study found that AAI could also induce the development of spontaneous liver cancer when given to infant mice [ 6 ]. Since considerable attention has been drawn to the safe use of AAs in China, the use of some herbs of the genus Aristolochia and Asarum has been prohibited.…”