Natural anthraquinones: acute toxicity evaluation in vivo.

COMINI, L.R.; FERNANDEZ, I.; MILLA, L.; NUÑEZ MONTOYA, S. C.; CABRERA, J.L.; RIVAROLA, V.

Palermo. Italia

Congreso; XVII CONGRESO ITALO-LATINOAMERICANO DE ETNOMEDICINA. “BERNARDINO D’UCRIA”; 2008

Soc. Italo-Latinoamericana de Etnomedicina (SILAE).

Rubiadin (1) and soranjidiol (2), are two anthraquinones (AQs) isolated from the phototoxic shrub Heterophyllaea pustulata, popularly known in Argentina as “cegadera”, because it produces blindness and dermatitis on animals that ingest the aerial parts of this plant and are exposed simultaneously to sun light. In addition, we demonstrated that these AQs are photosensitizers, with the ability to produce both singlet oxygen and superoxide anion under radiation condition. Considering that an important research line studies photosensitizers compounds and their potential uses in photodynamic therapy, especially in antitumoral therapy, we started to evaluate the photodynamic activity of these two metabolites in vitro against a human breast carcinoma cell line (MCF-7c3), obtaining satisfactory results [1]. Therefore, the next step will be to evaluate their photodynamic activity in vivo. In this work, the objective was to study the acute toxicity of these AQs at different concentrations with the aim to establish the non toxic dose, witch is necessary for future phototherapeutic studies in vivo that evaluate the tumor rejection when AQs are administered under irradiation conditions. Acute toxicity signs were evaluated in Balb/c female mice after the intraperitoneal injection of three different concentrations of each AQ. The following physiological parameters in control and AQ-treated animals were analyzed in serum at 1, 2 and 7 days after treatment using diagnostic kits: creatinine, urea and transaminase (GPT). Not significant differences are observed in GPT, creatinine and urea values between AQs-treated mice vs. controls animals. Hence, theses results demonstrated that not exist liver and renal toxicity.