Investigação do efeito anti-inflamatório, antioxidante e protetor na hepatotoxicidade induzida por tetracloreto de carbono (CCl4) de extrato aquoso de folhas de Quillaja lancifolia D.Don em camundongos

Abstract

With the greatest biodiversity in the world and being responsible for approximately 20% of the world's flora, Brazil stands out with notoriety regarding the development of new therapeutic methodologies based on natural products. Among these are medicinal plants. With this perspective, many plant families have been studied with the aim of confirming reports of their popular uses against various pathologies and discovering substances with therapeutic potential. Among them, Quillaja lancifolia D. Don stands out. Therefore, the objective of the study is to investigate the hepatoprotective, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of the aqueous extract of Quillaja lancifolia leaves in mice. Initially, the chemical characterization of the Q. lancifolia extract was performed by HPLC. Animal experiments were then carried out on male Swiss mice to evaluate the anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and hepatoprotective activity of the extract, through biochemical and enzymatic evaluation and histological analysis. The extract inhibited free radicals by DPPH, ABTS and TAC methods at concentrations of 4.83; 5.12 and 3.71μg/mL, respectively. Specifically, the activities of ALT, AST, GGT, ALP and LDH enzymes showed a dose-dependent reduction (55.28±3.12; 68.43±4.21; 9.24±0.67; 172.05±13.02 and 190.01±8.33 UI/L, respectively). It was also possible to observe a reduction in MDA activity at concentrations of 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg of the extract (10.13±0.94; 8.13±0.82 and 5.51±0.48 mU/mg) and a significant increase in the activities of SOD (9.01±0.96; 11.21±1.16 and 15.42±1.02 mU/mg), CAT (15.44±1.10; 18.20±1.36; 22.53±1.65 mU/mg) and GSH (29.48±2.25; 35.04±3.10; 41.73±3.29 mU/mg). Therefore, it can be concluded that the Q. lancifolia extract exhibited significant hepatoprotective and antioxidant activities. Hepatoprotective mechanisms are possibly related to their ability to prevent lipid peroxidation, maintain the activity of antioxidant enzymes, resist inflammation and consequently oxidative stress. Therefore, further studies are needed to confirm the results found in this study, in order to contribute to research involving natural products in search of new, more effective and safe therapies.