Protective effect of bioantioxidants on argemone oil/sanguinarine alkaloid induced genotoxicity in mice

Our prior studies have shown that argemone oil (AO) and its alkaloid sanguinarine causes DNA damage in mice and Epidemic Dropsy patients. Since some of the bioantioxidants including riboflavin and α-tocopherol offered protection to Epidemic Dropsy patients, a combination of riboflavin and α-tocopherol was evaluated on AO and sanguinarine induced genotoxicity using alkaline comet assay. Single administration of combination of riboflavin (50 mg/kg) and α-tocopherol (150 mg/kg) to mice, 24 h prior to or immediately after AO (2.0 ml/kg) exposure showed significant decrease in tail moment (70–72%), tail length (37–44%), and tail DNA (49–53%) in bone marrow cells. Single or multiple doses of antioxidants given after 24 h of AO exposure resulted in substantial (P<0.05) decrease in all the parameters of comet assay in bone marrow cells. Single dose of antioxidants given either 24 h prior to or immediately after sanguinarine (21.6 mg/kg) exposure caused significant decrease in tail moment (56–62%), tail length (69%) and tail DNA (34–42%) in bone marrow cells of mice. Single or multiple doses of antioxidants given after 24 h of sanguinarine treated resulted in decrease in tail moment (50–71%), tail length (54–63%) and tail DNA (29–43%) in bone marrow cells. Similar protective response of combination of antioxidants was observed in blood cells of mice treated either with AO or sanguinarine alkaloid. Further, the frequency of bone marrow and blood cells in Olive tail moment category of 8 and onwards were found to be substantially reduced in antioxidants treated animals as compared to respective AO or sanguinarine exposed mice. Based on these results, it can be suggested that a combination of riboflavin and α-tocopherol provides protection against AO and sanguinarine induced genotoxicity.