Since antiquity, Centaurea species have been used in folk medicine to treat several diseases owing to their potential biological activities that distinguish this genus such as antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory effect. The current study aimed to investigate the possible neuroprotective effects of the n-butanol extract of Centaurea maroccana (BECM) against cisplatin (CP) induced neurotoxicity in mice. BECM's potential neuroprotective properties were studied in vitro and in vivo models. Male Swiss albino mice were orally received BECM (200 mg/kg) for 10 days before a single intraperitoneal injection of cisplatin (8 mg/kg). Vitamin E (100 mg/kg) was given daily by gavage as a positive control. In vitro results revealed that BECM inhibited lipid peroxidation (LPO) levels and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity. In vivo findings showed that BECM pretreatment was able to regulate lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels and to improve CP-induced cholinergic dysfunction by inhibiting AChE activity in mice brains. Moreover, BECM attenuated CP-provoked oxidative stress by suppressing LPO levels, increasing total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and enhancing the activities of antioxidant enzymes (catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione S-transferase (GST)) in both brain cytosolic and mitochondrial fractions. The histological analysis exhibited neurotoprotective effect of BECM by protecting the cerebral cortex and reducing the histomorphological alterations resulted by cisplatin. Interestingly, our extract achieved neuroprotection comparable to vitamin E in most evaluated parameters. It appears that protective potency of BECM against CP-induced neurotoxicity could be related to its richness in polyphenols confirmed by liquid-chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis (LC-MS/MS).
Keywords: Centaurea maroccana Ball.; Cisplatin; LC-MS/MS analysis; neurotoxicity; oxidative stress; vitamin E.