Genetic, biochemical and histopathological evaluations of thymoquinone on male reproduction system damaged by paclitaxel in Wistar rats

Abstract

One of the most critical side effects of anti-cancer drugs is disruption in spermatogenesis. Paclitaxel (PTX) is the most commonly used drug in chemotherapy for various cancers, including breast, ovarian and prostate (Semet et al., 2017). This herbal alkaloid-based drug prevents replication and metastasis of tumours through destruction of the cellular cytoskeleton (Yang & Horwitz, 2017). As testes are susceptible organs to chemotherapeutic drugs, these agents can reduce the quality of sperm chromatin with adverse effects on spermatogenesis process (Semet et al., 2017). Since the past, herbal medications have been widely used for disease treatments. Nigella sativa is a plant of the Ranunculaceae family with many medicinal applications in diseases treatment, including gastrointestinal, respiratory and renal disorders (Yimer et al., 2019). Medical properties of Nigella sativa are attributed to quinone compounds. Among these,