Extract ofPrunus persicaflesh (PPFE) improves chemotherapeutic efficacy and protects against nephrotoxicity in cisplatin-treated mice

Determination of Selected Beneficial Substances in Peach Fruits

Peaches (Prunus persica L.) are a popular and sought-after dessert fruit. This is mainly due to their flavour, aroma, attractive appearance, and high content of substances that play an important role in human nutrition. The present study was carried out to determine some important analytical properties (sugars/sucrose, glucose, fructose and sorbitol), total acid, total phenolics, flavonoids, antioxidant capacity, carotenoids and anthocyanins of 34 selected peach varieties. The analyses are also complemented by colorimetric measurements of peach skin colour using CIELAB and other chromatic parameters. The results show, for example, that all peach varieties are good sources of phenolic compounds (9.43–577 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE).100 g−1), flavonoids (1.12–95.1 mg catechin equivalent (CAE).100 g−1), and antioxidant capacity (136–462 mg Trolox equivalent (TE).100 g−1).

Design of a Novel Theranostic Nanomedicine (III): Synthesis and Physicochemical Properties of Tumor-Targeting Cisplatin Conjugated to a Hydrophilic Polyphosphazene

Purpose

A new theranostic nanomedicine involving anticancer-active cisplatin moiety was designed to study its tumor-targeting properties as well as its drug efficacy and toxicity.

Methods

A cisplatin carrier polymer was prepared by grafting equimolar polyethylene glycol of a molecular weight of 550 (PEG550) and aminoethanol to the poly(dichlorophosphazene) backbone. Cisplatin was conjugated to the carrier polymer using cis-aconitic acid as a linker.

Results

The cisplatin-loaded polyphosphazene, named "Polycisplatin" was found to be amphiphilic in aqueous solution and self-assembled into nanoparticles with an average particle size of 18.6 nm in diameter. The time-dependent organ distribution study of Cy5.5-labeled Polycisplatin in the A549-tumor-bearing mice exhibited a high tumor selectivity of Polycisplatin by EPR effect despite the relatively small particle size. In order to compare the in vivo efficacy of Polycisplatin and cisplatin, their xenograft trials were performed using nude mice against the human gastric cell line MKN-28. Polycisplatin exhibited slightly less tumor suppression effect compared with cisplatin at the same dose of 1.95 mg Pt/kg, which is the maximum tolerate dose of cisplatin, but at the higher double dose of 3.9 mg Pt/kg, Polycisplatin exhibited a little better efficacy than cisplatin. Furthermore, mice treated with cisplatin at the dose of 1.95 mg Pt/kg exhibited severe body weight decrease by about 25%, while mice treated with Polycisplatin did not show serious body weight decrease even at its double dose of 3.9 mg Pt/kg. Furthermore, kidney indicators including kidney index, BUN, and creatinine values measured displayed that Polycisplatin is much less nephrotoxic than cisplatin.

Conclusion

Nanoparticular Polycisplatin was successfully prepared by conjugating cisplatin to a hydrophilic polyphosphazene carrier polymer using the acid-cleavable cis-aconitic acid. Polycisplatin nanoparticles exhibit excellent tumor-targeting properties by EPR effect. The xenograft trials exhibited excellent antitumor efficacy and reduced systemic toxicity of Polycisplatin.

Protective Effect of White-fleshed Peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) on Chronic Nicotine-induced Toxicity

Background

Nicotine is a major toxic component of tobacco smoke and has been recognized as a risk factor to induce oxidative tissue damage, which is a precursor to cardiovascular diseases, lung-related diseases, and cancers. Peaches (Prunus persica) have been used for the treatment of degenerative disorders, such as hypermenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, and infertility in Asian countries. In this study, we investigated the effects of white-fleshed peach on the excretion of nicotine metabolites and 1-hydroxypyrene in smokers and chronic nicotine-induced tissue damages in mice.

Methods

The concentrations of cotinine and 1-hydroxypyrene were measured in urine of smokers before or after intake of white-fleshed peaches. In addition, ICR mice were injected with nicotine (5 mg/kg body weight) and then orally administered with white-fleshed peach extracts (WFPE) (250 or 500 mg/kg body weight) for 36 days. The oxidative stress parameters and the activities of antioxidant enzymes were measured in liver and kidney tissues. Also, histological changes and nitrotyrosine expression were assessed.

Results

Intake of white-fleshed peaches increased the urinary concentration of nicotine metabolites and 1-hydroxypyrene in 91.67% and 83.33% of smokers, respectively. WFPE decreased the malondialdehyde levels and recovered the activities of antioxidant enzymes in nicotine-injected mice. In addition, WFPE inhibited nitrotyrosine expression and inflammatory responses in the liver, kidney, and lung tissues of nicotine-treated mice.

Conclusions

White-fleshed peaches may increase the metabolism of toxic components in tobacco smoke in smokers and protect normal tissues against nicotine toxicity in mice. Therefore, supplementation of white-fleshed peaches might be beneficial to smokers.

Phytotherapy of nephrotoxicity-induced by cancer drugs: an updated review

Context:

Kidney is one of the vital organs maintaining homeostasis of body and thus dysfunction of kidney affects quality of life and health severely. Anticancer drugs, particularly chemotherapeutic agents, cause high toxicity leading kidney dysfunction and irreparable kidney injury. Therefore, attention has recently been paid to seeking out alternatives such as nature-based drugs that are effective but less toxic. In this regard, this systematic review article is to report and introduce the most important medicinal plants and their derivatives that are used to reduce anticancer drug-induced nephrotoxicity. Evidence Acquisitions: The word nephrotoxicity alongside the words cancer or chemotherapy in combination with some herbal terms such as medicinal plant, plants, herbs, and extracts were administered to search for relevant publications indexed in PubMed.

Results:

According to this study, 16 medicinal plants, 12 plant-based derivatives, and three traditional plant-based formulations were found to help control and modulate anticancer drug-induced nephrotoxicity indices.

Conclusions:

Anticancer drugs cause nephrotoxicity through activating pathways of oxidative stress, damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) production, inflammatory processes, and cell apoptosis, while medicinal plants and their derivatives can cause reduction in nephrotoxicity and anticancer drugs side effects via their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Cisplatin-Induced Nephrotoxicity; Protective Supplements and Gender Differences

Cisplatin (CDDP) has been widely used as a chemotherapeutic agent for solid tumors. The most common side effect of CDDP is nephrotoxicity, and many efforts have been made in the laboratory and the clinic to employ candidate adjuvants to CDDP to minimize this adverse influence. Many synthetic and herbal antioxidants as well as trace elements have been investigated for this purpose in recent years and a variety of positive and negative results have been yielded. However, no definitive supplement has so far been proposed to prevent CDDP-induced nephrotoxicity; however, this condition is gender related and the sex hormone estrogen may protect the kidney against CDDP damage. In this review, the results of research related to the effect of different synthetic and herbal antioxidants supplements are presented and discussed with suggestions included for future work.

Penta-O-galloyl-β-D-glucose attenuates cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity via reactive oxygen species reduction in renal epithelial cells and enhances antitumor activity in Caki-2 renal cancer cells

Cisplatin shows limited therapeutic efficacy due to serious side effects such as nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity. In the present study, we demonstrate that 1,2,3,4,6-penta-O-galloyl-β-d-glucose (PGG) has protective effects against cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis in normal human primary renal epithelial cells (HRCs) while showing synergistic effect against cisplatin-induced cell death in human Caki-2 renal cancer cells. PGG significantly blocked cisplatin-mediated cytotoxicity and reduced cisplatin-induced sub-G1 accumulation in HRCs. Consistently, PGG reduced the number of apoptotic cell populations by TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) and Live/Dead assays in cisplatin-treated HRCs. Furthermore, PGG suppressed PARP cleavage and caspase-3 activation, cytochrome c release, up-regulation of bax and p53 in cisplatin-treated HRCs. Moreover, PGG attenuated reactive oxygen species (ROS) production mediated by cisplatin treatment, suggesting that PGG prevented cisplatin-induced apoptosis by inhibiting ROS generation in HRCs. Notably, PGG significantly enhanced cytotoxicity and PARP cleavage in cisplatin-treated Caki-2 renal cancer cells. Combination Index (CI) revealed synergism between PGG and cisplatin in Caki-2 cells. Taken together, our findings suggest the dual effects of PGG as a protective supplement against cisplatin-induced toxicity in normal renal cells and a combination chemotherapeutic drug with cisplatin in renal cancer cells.

Fucoidan reduces the toxicities of chemotherapy for patients with unresectable advanced or recurrent colorectal cancer

Combination chemotherapy with oxaliplatin plus 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin (FOLFOX) or irinotecan plus 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin (FOLFIRI) has become a standard regimen for advanced or recurrent colorectal cancer. Numerous studies have reported that long-term use of FOLFOX or FOLFIRI leads to better survival for these patients. Thus, control of the toxicity of these drugs may be crucial to prolonging survival. Fucoidan is one of the major sulfated polysaccharides of brown seaweeds and exhibits a wide range of biological activities. In the present study, we analyzed the effect of fucoidan on suppressing the toxicity of anti-cancer drugs. A total of 20 patients with unresectable advanced or recurrent colorectal cancer scheduled to undergo treatment with FOLFOX or FOLFIRI were randomly allocated into a fucoidan treatment group (n=10) and a control group without fucoidan treatment (n=10). Results showed that fucoidan regulated the occurrence of fatigue during chemotherapy. Chemotherapy with fucoidan was continued for a longer period than chemotherapy without fucoidan. Additionally, the survival of patients with fucoidan treatment was longer than that of patients without fucoidan, although the difference was not significant. Thus, fucoidan may enable the continuous administration of chemotherapeutic drugs for patients with unresectable advanced or recurrent colorectal cancer, and as a result, the prognosis of such patients is prolonged.

Effects of L-ascorbic acid on two cycles of cisplatin-induced DNA double-strand breaks and phosphorylation of p53 in the liver

Cisplatin, a commonly used anticancer drug, was studied to investigate its effects on structure, DNA damage and p53 along with the possible protective effects of L-ascorbic acid in the liver. Adult male BALB/c mice were treated with 0, 10 mg/kg L-ascorbic acid and two cycles of cisplatin 1 mg/kg/2.5 mg/kg with or without L-ascorbic acid (17 days recovery period between the cycles) and the livers were collected at 72 h after the last exposure. Structural damage was analyzed in Masson's trichrome and Hortega's silver stained liver tissues. The DNA double-strand breaks with duplex 3' overhangs and 5' P-blunt ends were labeled by in situ oligo ligation by using hairpin oligonucleotide probes. The expression of p53 and phosphorylated p53 (p-p53) was detected by immunohistochemistry. Structural changes such as vacuolization of hepatocytes, pyknosis, infiltration of leukocytes and pericentral fibrosis were observed without any protection from L-ascorbic acid. The reticular fibrous framework was affected and the incidence of Kupffer cells was decreased. Cisplatin induced the DNA double-strand breaks (p<0.001); however, the latter appeared in a p53-independent, but p-p53-dependent manner. L-ascorbic acid showed significant protective effect on cisplatin-induced DNA damage (p<0.001). Cisplatin also enhanced p53 phosphorylation in a dose-dependent manner and L-ascorbic acid reduced this biochemical change only in 1 mg/kg group. In conclusion, cisplatin-induced structural changes are not, but the DNA damage and phosphorylation of p53 are, significantly, but not completely, alleviated by L-ascorbic acid.