Protective Effect of Allyl Isothiocyanate in an Experimentally Induced Rat Model for Dry Eye Syndrome.

PURPOSE: Growing evidence emphasizes the role of inflammation and oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of Dry Eye Syndrome (DES). Concordantly, the importance of agents targeting the inflammatory cascade and oxidative stress in the treatment is also progressively increasing. Herein, the study has investigated the protective effects and underlying mechanism of allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) on the ocular surface in a benzalkonium chloride (BAC)-induced dry eye rat model. METHODS: A total of twenty-one Wistar albino rats were used to form the following three groups: Control, BAC, BAC + AITC. DES was established by topical application of BAC (four times daily for two weeks) in two groups, of which one group was treated with AITC (10 mg/kg BW daily oral dosage) for four weeks. Rats were monitored by dry eye diagnostic tests during the study period, and eventually, corneal tissues were used to evaluate for histopathologic analyzes and inflammatory and oxidative status. RESULTS: A significant improvement was observed in various histopathologic and ophthalmologic findings, including tear volume, tear film integrity, ocular surface damage, ocular inflammatory signs, corneal thickness, and edema through AITC supplementation. AITC prominently balanced the inflammatory status and oxidative stress by lowering key proinflammatory mediators (NF-κB, TNF-α, IL-1ß, IL-6, and IL-8) and increasing the activities of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, GSH-Px). Also, levels of protective tear proteins, including Muc1, Muc4, and Muc5 were recovered with AITC supplementation. CONCLUSION: AITC alleviates clinical and histopathologic signs related to DES. Antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties of AITC play a significant role in the mechanism of action.

Allyl isothiocyanate attenuates LED light-induced retinal damage in rats: exploration for the potential molecular mechanisms.

PURPOSE: Environmental light pollution due to artificial light may increase the rate and severity of retinal diseases, and plant-based nutritional interventions with antioxidant properties have the potential to reverse this phenomenon. We aimed to investigate the potential effects of allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) against white light-emitting diode (LED)-induced retinal degeneration (RD) in the rats. METHODS: Twenty-eight male rats were allocated as: (i) Control, (ii) LED, (iii) LED + AITC (10 mg/kg BW), (iv) LED + AITC (20 mg/kg BW). Rats were administered with AITC for 28 days, followed by two days of intense environmental LED light (750 Lux) exposure to the eyes. Animals were sacrificed immediately at the end of the study, then the blood and eyeballs were taken for the biochemical, western blotting, and histopathology examinations. RESULTS: AITC lowered the serum and retina malondialdehyde (MDA) levels while significantly (p < 0.05) improving the retinal antioxidant enzyme activities in a dose-dependent manner. AITC improved retinal and outer nuclear layer (ONL) thickness as compared to the LED group (p < 0.05). AITC increased the levels of Bax, caspase-3, HO-1, GAP43, and VEGF, while decreasing IL-1ß, IL-6, NF-κB, Bcl-2, GFAP, Grp78, activating ATF4 and ATF6 as compared to the LED group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, four weeks of AITC administration to the rats showed specific protective effects against two days of intense LED light-induced retinal damage; through antiinflammatory, antioxidant, anti-apoptotic, and modulating mitochondrial metabolic pathways.

A Next Generation Formulation of Curcumin Ameliorates Experimentally Induced Osteoarthritis in Rats via Regulation of Inflammatory Mediators.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic and debilitating disease of the knee joint. OA of the knee is initiated by physical damage and accumulated oxidative stress, followed by an exaggerated inflammation leading to cartilage damage. Currently, no effective and safe therapeutic option capable of restoring articular cartilage tissue and joint architecture is available. We here report a novel and highly bioavailable formulation of curcumin, labeled as Next Generation Ultrasol Curcumin (NGUC), which was 64.7 times more bioavailable than natural 95% curcumin extract as demonstrated in rat bioavailability studies. We further investigated the protective effect of NGUC against monosodium iodoacetate (MIA)-induced knee OA in rats. Analysis of X-ray and histopathological images revealed that NGUC supplementation restored joint architecture and reduced swelling of joints induced by MIA. NGUC treatment caused a significant reduction in the levels of inflammatory mediators such as TNF-α, IL-1ß, IL-6, COMP, and CRP, and expressions of MMP-3, 5-LOX, COX-2, and NFκB in synovial tissue of rats with MIA-induced OA. NGUC also decreased serum MDA level and increased the levels of antioxidant enzymes SOD, CAT, and GPX. Thus, our results indicate that a novel formulation of curcumin with enhanced bioavailability effectively ameliorates the pathophysiology of OA.