Author(s): Song-hua Ma, Ling-ling Zhang, Qi-qun Jiang
Cadmium (Cd) a toxic heavy metal environmental pollutant imposes deleterious health consequences to human population. Reports suggest that rampant free radical generation and oxidative stress are the cardinal event in Cd induced neurotoxicity. Recently, therapeutic intervention using bioflavonoids gaining more attention to mitigate oxidative stress related pathologies. Thus the present study was scrutinized to study the bio efficacy of natural flavonoid Morin (MO) on Cd induced oxidative neurotoxicity. Cd intoxication (3 mg/kg; s.c) for 21 days displayed significant reduction in the activity of Acetylcholine Esterase (AChE), Monoaminooxidase (MAO) in the brain tissue. Further elevated lipid peroxidation and protein carbonyl content were also observed in Cd intoxicated rats. Meanwhile the activities of enzymic and non enzymic antioxidants were significantly reduced and the protein expression of apoptotic protein Caspase 3 was upregulated in Cd exposed rats. However, in the present study morin treatment (40 mg/kg) significantly restored the altered biochemical markers level to normalcy. Further, the protein expression of caspase 3 was significantly down regulated in morin administered rats. Thus, the neuroprotective potential of morin might be due to its effective antioxidant activity, anti-lipid peroxidative effect and through inhibition of apoptotic proteins.