Protective effect of an aminothiazole compound against γ-radiation induced oxidative damage

Ionizing radiation causes its biological effects mainly through oxidative damage induced by reactive oxygen species. During radiotherapy of cancer, one of the undesirable side-effects is toxicity to normal cells. Compounds with antioxidant activities are being tried as 'prophylactic radioprotectants' to overcome this problem. We evaluated the protective effect of an aminothiazole compound, in the form of dendrodoine analogue (DA) originally derived from a marine tunicate, against gamma-radiation-induced damage to lipid, protein, and DNA besides its cytotoxicity. Oxidative damage was examined by different biochemcial assays. Our studies reveal that DA gave significant protection, in fairly low concentrations, against damage induced by gamma-radiation to rat liver mitochondria, plasmid pBR322 DNA, and mouse splenic lymphocytes in vitro. It also protected against oxidative damage in whole-body irradiated mice exposed to therapeutic dose of radiation (2 Gy) in vivo. Spleen, a major target organ for radiation damage, of the irradiated mice showed significant protection when treated with DA, as examined by histopathology. In conclusion, due to the possible protective effects against normal cells/tissues both in vitro and in vivo, DA shows potential to be a radioprotector for possible use during radiotherapy.