Tag Archives: N-acetylcysteine

The effect of L-glutamic acid and N-acetylcysteine administration on biochemical blood parameters in rats treated with CCl(4)

N. O. Salyha

Institute of Animal Biology NAAS of Ukraine, Lviv;
е-mail: ynosyt@yahoo.com

Received: 30 March 2023; Revised: 19 May 2023;
Accepted: 05 June 2023; Available on-line: 20 June 2023

A toxic organic substance CCl4 is a well known model compound for studying detoxification function of the liver and developing oxidative stress. The goal of the study was to estimate the effect of L-glutamic acid (L-Glu) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) administration on rat blood parameters upon the toxic effects of CCl4. Experimental male Wistar rats were injected intraperitoneally with CCl4, the rats of CCl4/L‑Glu group were additionally injected with L-Glu (750 mg/kg), of CCl4/NAC group – with NAC (150 mg/kg), of CCl4/L-Glu/NAC group – with L-Glu (750 mg/kg) and NAC (150 mg/kg). The duration of the experiment was 24 h. Increased level of lipid peroxides, TBARS, triacylglycerols, cholesterol and decreased glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione-S-transferase activity and GSH content were observed in the blood of the CCl4 treated animals compared to the control untreated group. When animals were additionally injected with L-Glu or L-Glu/NAC, the most of the studied indicators were shown to be close to the control level These results suggest that the mentioned above aminoacids attenuated CCl4-induced oxidative stress in the blood of rats.

Impact of N-acetylcysteine on antitumor activity of doxorubicin and landomycin A in NK/Ly lymphoma-bearing mice

Yu. S. Kozak1, R. R. Panchuk2, N. R. Skorokhyd2, L. V. Lehka2, R. S. Stoika1,2

 1Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine;
2Іnstitute of Cell Biology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Lviv;
e-mail: stoika@cellbiol.lviv.ua

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a dietary supplement demonstrating antioxidant and liver protecting effects that is widely used in clinics. NAC is considered to possess potential therapeutic activity for health disorders characterized by generation of free oxygen radicals, as well as potential for decreasing negative side effects of various drugs. However, the mechanisms of such tissue-protective actions of NAC remain poorly understood. The main aim of this work was to study therapeutic effects of NAC applied together with the “gold standard” of chemotherapy doxorubicin (Dx) or the novel experimental drug landomycin A (LA) to mice bearing NK/Ly lymphoma. It was revealed that NAC significantly decreased the nephrotoxicity of Dx (measured as creatinine level), possessed moderate immunomodulating activity (as revealed by an increase in number of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes), and partially increased survival of NK/Ly lymphoma-bearing animals treated with Dx. On the contrary, there was little tissue-protective effect of NAC towards LA due to the weak side effects of this anticancer drug, however, the combined use of NAC and LA significantly increased survival (60+ days) of LA-treated animals with NK/Ly lymphoma. Summarizing, NAC possesses a moderate tissue-protective activity towards Dx action but lacks a major therapeutic effect. However, in the case of LA action, NAC significantly increases its anticancer activity with no impact on its negative side effects. Further studies of the molecular mechanisms underlying that activity of NAC towards the action of LA are in progress.