Natural Compounds Rosmarinic Acid and Carvacrol Counteract Aluminium-Induced Oxidative Stress.

Juste Baranauskaite,Arturas Kasauskas,Dalia M Kopustinskiene,Arunas Liekis,Ruta Masteikova,Ugne Zlabiene,Ilona Sadauskiene,Robertas Lazauskas,Jurga Bernatoniene

doi:10.3390/molecules25081807

Abstract

Aluminum accumulation, glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations as well as catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were determined in erythrocytes and brain and liver homogenates of BALB/c mice treated with Al3+ (7.5 mg/kg/day (0.15 LD50) as AlCl3 (37.08 mg/kg/day), whereas HCl (30.41 mg/kg/day) was used as Cl− control, the treatments were performed for 21 days, i.p., in the presence and absence of rosmarinic acid (0.2805 mg/kg/day (0.05 LD50), 21 days, i.g.) or carvacrol (0.0405 mg/kg/day (0.05 LD50), 21 days, i.g.). The treatment with AlCl3 increased GSH concentration in erythrocytes only slightly and had no effect on brain and liver homogenates. Rosmarinic acid and carvacrol strongly increased GSH concentration in erythrocytes but decreased it in brain and liver homogenates. However, AlCl3 treatment led to Al accumulation in mice blood, brain, and liver and induced oxidative stress, assessed based on MDA concentration in the brain and liver. Both rosmarinic acid and carvacrol were able to counteract the negative Al effect by decreasing its accumulation and protecting tissues from lipid peroxidation. AlCl3 treatment increased CAT activity in mice brain and liver homogenates, whereas the administration of either rosmarinic acid or carvacrol alone or in combination with AlCl3 had no significant effect on CAT activity. SOD activity remained unchanged after all the treatments in our study. We propose that natural herbal phenolic compounds rosmarinic acid and carvacrol could be used to protect brain and liver against aluminum induced oxidative stress leading to lipid peroxidation.

Highlights

Aluminum (Al) is the third most abundant chemical element found in nature and the most abundant metal in the Earth0 s crust [1]
We proposed that natural herbal strong antioxidant activity, such as rosmarinic acid [24] and carvacrol [29], could help to counteract the phenolic with strong antioxidant activity, such as rosmarinic acid [24] and carvacrol [29], toxicity ofcompounds couldEndogenous help to counteract toxicity of Al. in the mitochondrial inner membrane during the process
The ability of rosmarinic acid and carvacrol to significantly diminish the levels of MDA in mice brain (Figure 3b) and liver (Figure 3c) in our study suggests the potential of these natural phenolic compounds to act as brain and liver protectants via the antioxidant effect

Summary

Introduction

Aluminum (Al) is the third most abundant chemical element found in nature and the most abundant metal in the Earth0 s crust [1]. It is widely used in the medical, food, and pharmaceutical industries as a part of vaccines, for water purification, for packaging, and in agriculture, resulting in human exposure [2]. Aluminum crosses the blood–brain barrier and can accumulate in different regions of the brain [13,14], inducing neurotoxicity and contributing to neuronal death in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer0 s disease and Parkinson0 s disease [15,16,17]. Due to frequent human exposure to Al and the possible role of Al in neurodegenerative disorders, it is important to find substances that could potentially counteract the toxic effects

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