Unveiling the Anticancer Effect of Syringic Acid and Its Derivatives in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Objective: Traditionally, syringic acid has been used as a medicine for a wide range of ailments. The current study aims to look at its potential therapeutic benefits against experimentally generated hepatocellular carcinoma in wistar rats, and in order to better understand how syringic acid interacts with apoptosis proteins in hepatocellular carcinoma, the molecular docking has been performed by using argus lab 4.0.1 software. Methods: The hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) targets such as P53, BAX, Bcl-2, capase 3 and 9, Cytochrome-C, TNFα, NFκB, and TRAF1 were docked with syringic acid. The syringic acid derivatives such as acetosyringone, syringaldehyde, syringol, sinapinic acid, sinapyl alcohol, sinapaldehyde, sinapine, and canolol were docked with caspase3. Thirty male wistar rats were randomly assigned to five groups. The control group was given normal saline. Group 2 obtained a single oral dose of diethylnitrosamine (DEN) (200 mg/kg) body weight. Groups 3, 4, and 5 received diethylnitrosamine (DEN), and furthermore daily administration of syringic acid orally at 25 mg/kg for 14 w. Serum samples were used for the determination of liver marker levels. Liver tissue samples were used for histopathological determination, apoptotic and anti-apoptotic protein expression. Results: The syringic acid and its derivatives exhibited excellent energy values and satisfied the drug-likeness property of Lipinski’s rule of five. Syringic acid significantly reduced the serum liver marker levels, and in contrast, it increased the expression of apoptotic proteins in the diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced treated group. Conclusion: It has been demonstrated that syringic acid had a protective effect against diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced hepatocellular carcinoma in Wistar rats, and a docking study exhibited that it has good anticancer activity.