The Antitumor effect of Tetrodotoxin or / and Doxorubicin with or without N-Acetylcysteine on Some Biochemical Alterations in Ehrlich Carcinoma-Bearing Female Mice

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the effect of Tetrodotoxin (TTX) or / and Doxorubicin (DOX) with or without the antioxidant N-Acetylcystiene (NAC) on Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) bearing mice. TTX (1/20LD; equal 0.5mg/L of crude TTX), DOX (15mg/kg) or / and NAC (50mg/kg b.wt ) were administrated after 10 days of tumor inoculation in EAC bearing- female mice through a period of 2 weeks in six equal intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections. Blood was collected and liver was excised, they were processed and used for the determination of the investigated biochemical parameters. Treatment of tumor-bearing mice with TTX or / and DOX with or without NAC reduced the elevated plasma GGT, TNF-α, total protein levels but did not significantly affect albumen content. Only the NAC+DOX treated group showed an elevation in the plasma total protein level. Additionally, treatment of tumor bearing mice with these drugs displayed a significant decrease in hepatic total cholesterol and LDL levels, while triglycerides level was decreased in NAC+DOX and TTX+DOX and increased significantly in TTX, NAC+TTX and NAC+TTX+DOX treatment in comparison with the tumor mice. Controversially, HDL level was significantly increased when compared to the tumor values. These results suggested that TTX is an important antitumor agent as comparison with DOX. It induced a significant free-radical scavenging and anti-proliferative effects against malignant cells which can be inferred from significant improvement of the GGT and TNF-α enzymes activity and lipid profile in EAC bearing mice.