Avaliação toxicológica do extrato aquoso dos ramos de E. tirucalli L. in vitro

Abstract

Euphorbia tirucalli, popularly known as avelós, is a toxic plant traditionally used as a tea in the Brazilian folk medicine for the treatment of various diseases, by presentingantibacterial, antiviral and anticarcinogenicproperties. However, there is no scientific report regardingthe toxic effects of this plant in human cells which may occurfrom its consumption, as well as the mechanisms by which it induces its toxicity. Therefore, the objectiveof the present study was to evaluate in vitrothe genotoxicity and cytotoxicity potential of aqueous extract of E. tirucalliin human leukocytes using comet assay and trypan blue exclusion respectively. In addition, the effect of the aqueous extract of E. tirucalli on osmotic fragility was investigated in human erythrocytes. Furthermore, we evaluated the qRT-PCR expressions of selected antioxidant mRNA genes (SOD2, CAT and GPx4). Our results demonstrated that exposure of E. tirucalli to human leukocytes caused significant increase in DNA damage at the higher concentrations tested (100-150 µg/mL), which was associated with a significant decrease of cellular viability at concentrations 10 to 150 µg/mL. In contrast, E. tirucallidid not induce hemolysis of human erythrocytes at all the concentrations tested. Exposure of E. tirucalli (10-50µg/mL)to human leukocytes significantly up-regulated the mRNA of SOD2 and CAT genes expressions, and significantly decreasedthe mRNA of GPx4 at higher concentrations (100-150 µg/mL). In addition, the mRNA gene expression of SOD2 was down-regulated at the highest concentration tested (150 µg/mL).In summary, based in the results of genotoxicity observed in our study, we recommend caution in the acute or chronic use of thishomemade prepared.Taken together, our results suggest that the extract aqueous of E. tirucalliinduces genotoxicity and cytotoxicity to human leukocytes, possibly by interacting with the antioxidant enzyme system, thereby, increasing the formation of ROSand decreasing the cellular tolerance level to chemical constituents of this plant. Therefore, we recommend caution in the acute or chronic use of this plant.