Evaluation of chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic effect of Artemisia vulgaris extract against diethylnitrosamine induced hepatocellular carcinogenesis in Balb C mice.

S Ali,T A Mughal,N Shafi,S Safeer,S Andleeb,M Ejaz,K K Dar,N Akhtar,N Ashraf,M A Khan,S F Gillani,S Nasreen

doi:10.1590/1519-6984.185979

Abstract

The main objective of current study was to investigate the chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic activity of Artemisia vulgaris extract on diethylnitrosoamine induced hepatocarcinogenesis in Balb C mice. Diethylnitrosoamine (DEN: 0.9%) was prepared to induce hepatocarcinoma in Balb C mice. The extract Artemisia vulgaris (AV) was prepared by maceration technique. Mice were classified into four groups as follows: Group 1 a control group (N=7) received saline solution (3.5 μl/mg), group 2 (N=14) received diethylnitrosoamine (3.5 μl/mg) intraperitoneally once in a week for eight consecutive weeks, group 3 (N=7) received only plant extract (AV: 150 mg/kg (Body weight) once in a week, while group 4 (N=7) was given in combination of diethylnitrosoamine (3.5 μl/mg) and plant extract (AV: 150 mg/kg (body weight). After eight weeks of DEN administration, mice of group 2 were divided into two subgroups containing seven mice each; subgroup 1 was sacrificed while subgroup 2 was treated with plant extract only (150 mg/kg (body weight)) once in a week for eight consecutive weeks. The DEN injected mice significant decline in levels of albumin with concomitant significant elevations such as aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, alpha feto protein, gamma glutamyl transferase, 5 nucleotidase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and bilirubin. The administration of A. vulgaris significantly decreased the DEN induced hepatotoxicity. Present study revealed the potential anti-cancerous nature of Artemisia vulgaris, both in case of chemopreventive and post-treatment of A. vulgaris. Further studies are needed to explore the mechanism of prevention and therapy.

Highlights

Liver cancer or Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most normal malignancy and the third driving cause of cancerous deaths in the world (Ferlay et al, 2010)
When extract of AV was given in combination with DEN no significant increase in levels of Alanine Aminotransferase (ALAT) was observed (DEN+AV1: 73.2 ± 2.3 U/L) .When extract of AV was injected intraperitoneally (150 mg/kg body weight once in a week for eight consecutive weeks) in DEN treated mice, significant decrease in level of ALAT (DEN: 141.5 ± 2.2 U/L; DEN + AV2: 127.5 ± 2.5 U/L) was observed (Figure 1)
DEN injected intraperitoneally (3.5 μl/mg body weight once in a week for eight consecutive weeks in mice) resulted in highly significant increase in levels of Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) When extract of AV was given in combination with DEN no significant increase in levels of LDH was observed (DEN + AV1: 797.0 ± 27.2 U/L)

Summary

Introduction

Liver cancer or Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most normal malignancy and the third driving cause of cancerous deaths in the world (Ferlay et al, 2010). The load of malignancy is expanding in developing nations because of population increase and growth as well as, increasingly, an adaptation of cancerous related life style choices like reduced physical activity, smoking and western diets. An expected 748300 new HCC cases and 695900 cancerous deaths happened throughout the world. In Europe 60, 200 cases were diagnosed in 2008 (Jemal et al, 2011). Because of the high resilience of liver, HCC is sometimes distinguished at the early stage and once recognized, treatment confronts a poor anticipation much of the time (Singh et al, 2009)

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