Open AccessThe Role of Thymoquinone in Mitigating Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Rats: Targeting the CHOP-1/JNK/P38 MAPK, NFκB/TNF-α/IL-10, and Bax/Bcl-2/Caspase-3 Signalling Pathways
Author(s) -
Rania Elsayed Hussein,
Laila Ahmed Rashed,
Basma Emad Aboulhoda,
Ghada Mahmoud Abdelaziz,
Ebtehal Gamal Abdelhady,
Sarah A Abd El-Aal,
Asmaa Mohammed ShamsEldeen,
Mohamed Mansour Khalifa,
Heba Morsi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
folia biologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.165
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1734-9168
pISSN - 0015-5497
DOI - 10.3409/fb_69-1.01
Subject(s) - thymoquinone , p38 mitogen activated protein kinases , cancer research , mapk/erk pathway , chop , apoptosis , tumor necrosis factor alpha , chemistry , kinase , pharmacology , medicine , immunology , biochemistry , antioxidant
The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of thymoquinone (TQ) on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in rats. Our study has reported that TQ treatment of experimentally-induced HCC results in the up-regulation of the Jun-N-terminal kinase and p38 mitogen activated protein kinase pathway (JNK/p38 MAPK) and the enhancement of anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and pro-apoptotic machineries. TQ resulted in a significant decrease in the levels of nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B-cells (NFκB), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and a significant increase in the anti-inflammatory interleukin-10 (IL-10). The pro-apoptotic effect of TQ was demonstrated through stimulating the apoptotic Bcl-2-associated X (Bax) gene and inhibiting the anti-apoptotic B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) gene together with increasing the level of caspase 3 and up-regulating the C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP-1) gene expression. TQ treatment also enhanced the activity of the ROS scavenger, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and decreased the level of the lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA). TQ-dependent suppression of HCC was associated with the up-regulation of JNK/p38 MAPK, enhanced CHOP-1 expression, and subsequently increased Bax gene expression.