Hepatoprotective effect of fullerenol/doxorubicin nanocomposite in acute treatment of healthy rats

In our recent studies we have designed fullerenol/doxorubicin nanocomposite (FNP/DOX) as the new drug nanocarrier. This research has demonstrated that this novel nanocomposite has had better implications on the liver tissue in vivo (Wistar rats treated intraperitoneally), than treatment based only on DOX. FNP/DOX has been characterised by DLS, TEM and AFM measurements which have shown that DOX loaded onto FNP did not influence fullerenol nanoparticle's size. FNP/DOX affected oxidative status in blood causing a significant decrease of catalase and SOD activity in comparison to DOX, implicating the reduction in oxidative stress. qRT-PCR results on the mRNA level of antioxidative enzymes (catalase and MnSOD) revealed that the effect of oxidative stress is significantly reduced by the treatment with FNP/DOX (p < .05). The ultrastructural analysis of the liver tissue has revealed that FNP/DOX nanocomposite generated considerably less damage in the liver tissue, than DOX applied at the same dose. Hence, our results have indicated that FNP, within FNP/DOX nanocomposite, exhibits protective effects to the liver tissue of the healthy rats.