Citrus sinensis and Vitis vinifera Protect Cardiomyocytes from Doxorubicin-Induced Oxidative Stress: Evaluation of Onconutraceutical Potential of Vegetable Smoothies

Abstract

The interest towards nutraceuticals able to counteract drug side effects is continuously growing in current chemotherapeutic protocols. In the present study, we demonstrated that smoothies containing mixtures of Citrus sinensis and Vitis vinifera L. cv. Aglianico N, two typical fruits of the Mediterranean diet, possess bioactive polyphenols that protect cardiomyocytes against doxorubicin-induced oxidative stress. The polyphenolic extracts isolated from Citrus sinensis- and Vitis vinifera-based functional smoothies were deeply characterized by Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry methods. Subsequently, the functional smoothies and relative mixtures were tested to verify their ability to affect cellular viability and oxidative stress parameters in embryonic cardiomyocyte cells (H9c2), and human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7) exposed to doxorubicin. Interestingly, we found that the mix resulting from Citrus sinensis and Vitis vinifera association in ratio 1:1 was able to reduce cardiomyocytes damage induced by anthracyclines, without significantly interfering with the pro-apoptotic activity of the drug on breast cancer cells. These results point out the potential use of vegetable smoothies as adjuvants functional foods for chemotherapeutic anticancer protocols.

Protective Effect of Pomegranate on Oxidative Stress and Inflammatory Response Induced by 5-Fluorouracil in Human Keratinocytes

“…The percentage of hypodiploid nuclei was analyzed using propidium iodide (PI) staining by flow cytometry [ 38 ]. Briefly, HaCaT cells (8.0 × 10 3 cells/well) were grown in 24-well plates and allowed to adhere.…”

Current Strategies for Studying the Natural and Synthetic Bioactive Compounds in Food by Chromatographic Separation Techniques

“…Numerous studies indicate that HPLC is the method of choice due to its precision and sensitivity for the determination and quantification of natural as well as synthetic antioxidants in various food/food products [45][46][47][59][60][61][62][63][64]. The main group of antioxidants investigated were phenolic compounds, especially phenolic acids, catechins, and flavonoids.…”

Enhancement of Immune Activities of Mixtures with Sasa quelpaertensis Nakai and Ficus erecta var. sieboldii

“…It has been widely claimed that when food ingredients are mixed rather than using a single material, the synergistic therapeutic effects due to the combination of biochemicals may be superior to that of single biochemicals [ 20 , 21 ]. Much research has reported that when the mixed material is treated, a more effective bioactive effect is exhibited than when a single material is treated [ 22 , 23 , 24 ]. In this study, we aimed to establish a mixing ratio that dramatically enhanced immune function by utilizing two natural resources of Jeju, FES and SQN.…”