Lactobacillus casei protects malathion induced oxidative stress and macromolecular changes in Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Malathion induced oxidative stress (OS) leads to the inevitable accumulation of free radicals and eventual alteration of antioxidant enzymes in various biological systems. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), renowned for its probiotic potentials has been clinically accepted and recommended for consumption as a dietary supplement for its anti-oxidant efficacy. But the idea of treating malathion-induced OS by LAB has been in the dark. Thus, the present study is intended to investigate the protective antioxidant potential of Lactobacillus casei against malathion-induced biochemical alterations by employing the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as model system. C. elegans exposed to malathion and L. Casei were examined for toxicity by assessing various stress markers including, reactive oxygen species (ROS), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), protein carbonyl content (PCC) and lipid peroxidation (LPO). In addition, the levels of antioxidative enzymes such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and reduced glutathione (GSH) also were assessed. According to the results, C. elegans exposed to malathion showed a significant increase in the accumulation of stress markers and a decrease in the levels of antioxidative enzymes, when compared to their respective controls. Interestingly, C. elegans pretreated with L. casei significantly increased the levels of SOD and GSH and, while exposing the pretreated C. elegans with malathion, the levels of antioxidative and stress marker enzymes were rescued and reduced respectively, thereby showing that the L. casei pretreatment protects the in vivo system from malathion-induced OS. Furthermore, the FT-IR spectroscopy results suggested the protective efficacy of L. casei as an antioxidant in preventing the malathion induced damage to macromolecules such as DNA, lipids and protein. Thus, the present study reports for the first time that L. casei could be a promising biotherapeutic agent against malathion induced OS.