Virgin coconut oil extract mitigates testicular‐induced toxicity of alcohol use in antiretroviral therapy

Abstract

The consumption of alcohol by people living with HIV/AIDS is associated with a graver prognosis. Long-term use of antiretrovirals may have certain health challenges that may be aggravated by concomitant alcohol use. This study investigated virgin coconut oil (VCO) as an adjuvant to the deleterious effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and alcohol on the cyto-architecture and functioning of the testis. Forty adult male Sprague-Dawley rats, weighing 165~176 g, were divided into eight groups and treated according to protocol. Testicular histology, stereological parameters, seminal fluid, testosterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, the antioxidants marker malondialdehyde (MDA), and antioxidant glutathione (GSH) were examined. The use of ethanol alone and ethanol + HAART showed extensive degeneration in the seminiferous epithelium, decreased semen quality, disorganized basement membrane and widened, hypocellular interstitium. GSH was significantly decreased in the ethanol alone treated group with no significant effect on testosterone, LH, and MDA levels. Adjuvant treatment with VCO at low dose (2.5 mL/kg/bw) improved sperm motility with a partial restoration of the histopathological alterations. High doses of VCO (5.0 mL/kg/bw) showed greater improvement with respect to sperm counts, increased FSH hormonal and GSH antioxidant levels, and a well-preserved testicular cyto-architecture.

Moringa oleiferaseed oil or virgin coconut oil supplementation abrogates cerebral neurotoxicity induced by antineoplastic agent methotrexate by suppression of oxidative stress and neuro‐inflammation in rats

“…Accumulating evidence shows that natural products have potentials to modulate undesirable side effects of anticancer drugs without altering their anticancer efficacy (Yin, Wei, Jian, & Yang, ). Natural oils such as VCO and MOO are evolving as functional foods due to their health‐promoting pharmacological activities reported in published literature (Abarikwu et al, ; Famurewa et al, ; Ogedengbe et al, ). The current study explored the antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory effects of VCO and MOO supplementation on cerebral neurotoxicity induced by MTX in Wistar rats.…”

“…Findings here are consistent with previous reports from in vivo studies regarding MOO and VCO antioxidant actions. VCO has been suggested as a promising natural agent to mitigate drug toxicity (Famurewa et al, ; Ogedengbe et al, ). A number of in vivo systematic investigations have suggested that MOO could reverse oxidative damage to the liver and testes via increased CAT, SOD, GPx activity, and decreased MDA level (Abarikwu et al, ; Olatosin et al, ).…”

Histomorphological study of the effects of aqueous extract of Curcuma longa on highly active antiretroviral therapy‐induced testicular toxicity

“…The consequence of chronic administration of drugs that can induce toxicity when cells are dividing actively during spermatogenesis eventually leads to cessation, which also plays significant roles in germinal epithelial cell degeneration. In addition, testicular function is impaired when basement membrane is altered (Ogedengbe et al., 2018).…”

“… Group A: received distilled water as control Group B: received 100 mg/kg C. longa Group C: received 200 mg/kg C. longa Group D: received HAART‐SYMFI containing tenofovir, lamivudine and efavirenz (300, 300 and 600 mg/day respectively); 100 ml of distilled water was used to dissolve it and then adjusted to the animal equivalent dose of 0.51, 0.51 and 1.03 mg/kg body weight respectively (Ogedengbe et al., 2018). Group E: received HAART and 100 mg/kg C. longa (Shaikh et al, 2013) Group F: received HAART and 200 mg/kg C. longa (Shaikh et al, 2013) …”

“…One of the major global health challenges is the HIV/AIDS epidemic (Jones et al., 2019). So far, it has claimed more than 35 million lives (Ogedengbe et al., 2018). According to UNAIDS (2018), an estimated 36.9 million people are currently living with the virus and Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest disease burden of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the world, having about 1.9 million people infected.…”