Unveiling Oxidative Stress-Induced Genotoxicity and Its Alleviation through Selenium and Vitamin E Therapy in Naturally Infected Cattle with Lumpy Skin Disease

Waqas Ahmad; Adeel Sattar; Mehmood Ahmad; Muhammad Waqar Aziz; Asif Iqbal; Muhammad Yasin Tipu; Rana Muhammad Zahid Mushtaq; Naeem Rasool; Hafiz Saleet Ahmed; Muhammad Ahmad

doi:10.3390/vetsci10110643

Unveiling Oxidative Stress-Induced Genotoxicity and Its Alleviation through Selenium and Vitamin E Therapy in Naturally Infected Cattle with Lumpy Skin Disease

Vet Sci. 2023 Nov 7;10(11):643. doi: 10.3390/vetsci10110643.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore 54000, Pakistan.
² Livestock and Dairy Development Department Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan.
³ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore 54000, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan.
⁵ Institute of Microbiology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore 54000, Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Parasitology, Riphah International University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan.
⁷ Division of Infection Medicine, College of Medicine, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH16 4SB, UK.
⁸ Department of Livestock Management, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan.

Abstract

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a contagious infection of cattle caused by a virus of the Poxviridae family, genus Capripoxvirus. In Pakistan, recent outbreaks have resulted in significant nationwide mortality and economic losses. A 20-day prospective cohort study was performed on sixty infected cattle with the aim to evaluate LSD-induced oxidative stress's genotoxic role and to determine the ameliorative effect of antioxidant therapy using principal component analysis (PCA) and a multivariable ordinal logistic regression model. LSDV was identified from scab samples and nodular lesions using RPO30-specific gene primers. The infected cattle were divided into control and treated groups. The animals were observed initially and finally on day 20 to evaluate the homeostatic, oxidative, and genotoxic changes. The animals in the treated group were administered a combination of selenium (Se) and vitamin E at the standard dose rate for five consecutive days. A substantial (p < 0.05) improvement in the hematological indices was observed in the treated group. The treated group also showed a significant (p < 0.05) reduction in levels of serum nitric oxide (NO) and malondialdehyde (MDA) post-therapy. The PCA at the final sampling data of the treated group showed that Principal Component (PC1 eigenvalue 1.429) was influenced by superoxide dismutase (SOD; 0.3632), catalase (CAT; 0.2906), and glutathione (GSH; 0.0816) and PC2 (eigenvalue 1.200) was influenced by CAT (0.4362), MDA (0.2056), and NO (0.0693). A significant correlation between serum NO (76%) and MDA levels (80%) was observed with genetic damage index (GDI) scores. The ordinal logistic regression model regarding the use of antioxidant therapy revealed 73.95-times (95%CI; 17.36-314.96) improvement in the GDI in treated animals. The multivariable ordinal logistic regression showed that each unit increase in NO and MDA resulted in a 13% increase in genotoxicity in infected individuals. In conclusion, our study revealed that LSD-induced oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation product causes genotoxicity in affected animals. Furthermore, the combined Se and vitamin E therapy significantly alleviated oxidative stress and genotoxicity in LSD-affected cattle.

Keywords: Lumpy skin disease; Pakistan; comet assay; genotoxicity; oxidative stress; selenium; tocopherol.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.