Investigation of potential protective effect of N-acetylcysteine amid againist lung injury upon paraquat exposure

N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA) is a new molecule with powerful antioxidant properties, synthesized after neutralizing the carboxyl group of N-acetylcysteine (NAC). The aim of this study was to investigate protective effects of NACA against lung injury upon PQ exposure with biochemical and histological analysis.In the study, thirty Adult Wistar Albino rats were divided three groups as group 1: control (n=10), group 2: Paraquat (10 mg/kg) (n=10) and group 3: Paraquat (10 mg/kg) + NACA (100 mg/kg) (n=10). NACA was administrated by intraperitoneal 30 min before paraquat injection. Paraquat administration was carried out by subcutaneous injection twice a week. Performance was planned for a period of twenty eight days. At the end of this period, rats were sacrificed and lung tissues were taken. In the tissues, primary antioxidant enzymes, malondialdehyde (MDA), total glutathione (tGSH) and nitric oxide (tNO) levels were measured. In addition, the tissues were examined histologically. The obtained data were evaluated statistically by One Way ANOVA test. According to biochemical data, MDA levels exhibited significant increase (p <0.01) when PQ group was compared to the control group, whereas NACA-treated group showed significant decline (p <0.05). In addition, significant increasing (p <0.001) of tGSH level in NACA administration group is another outstanding result compared with the PQ group. Our histological data are consistent with the protective properties of NACA in terms of biochemical data.As a result, NACA significantly reduced lung damage that may have occured after the process of oxidative stress with PQ exposure. In addition, the curative effect of NACA was concluded to have an important regulatory role in GSH metabolism which was impaired with PQ.Keywords: N-Acetylcysteine Amide, Paraquat, Lung, Oxidative stress.