H. Faramarzi¹, J. Saffari-Chaleshtori², S. Zolghadri³,
M. Beheshtroo⁴, A. Faramarzi⁵, S. M. Shafiee^4,6*

¹Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran;
²Clinical Biochemistry Research Center, Basic Health Sciences Institute, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran;
³Department of Biology, Jahrom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Jahrom, Iran;
⁴Department of Biochemistry, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran;
⁵Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran;
⁶Autophagy Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz Iran;
*e-mail: shafieem@sums.ac.ir

Received: 08 November 2021; Revised: 27 June 2021;
Accepted: 29 September 2022; Available on-line: 06 October 2022

Isoniazid is one of the anti-tuberculosis therapeutic agents capable of causing side effects such as oxidative stress, brain tissue damage and mental disorders. This study aimed to investigate the effect of ferric oxi­de (Fe₂O₃) nanoparticles administration on isoniazid-induced oxidative stress parameters in rat brain tissue. Forty adult male Wistar rats (200–250 g) were randomly divided into a group with no treatment as control and four experimental groups. Animals of experimental groups received intraperitoneally for 12 days daily saline, 50 mg/kg of isoniazid, 50 mg/kg of isoniazid and 0.2 or 0.4 mg/kg Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles accordingly. The activity of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione-S-transferase (GST), the level of glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA) and total protein were determined in brain tissue homogenates by spectrophotometric methods. It was shown that CAT and GST activities, as well as GSH and MDA levels in the brain tissue of animals in the isoniazid-treated group were increased compared with the control untreated group, while following the treatment with 0.2 or 0.4 mg/kg Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles the studied oxidative stress parameters returned to the control level (P < 0.05). No changes in SOD activity in any of the treated groups were observed compared to the control. This study showed that the administration of ferric oxide nanoparticles can suppress isoniazid-induced oxidative stress in the brain tissue of rats mentally damaged by isoniazid.