Investigation of the possible protective and therapeutic effects of neohesperidine dihydrochalcone (NHDC, C28H36O15) in rats with experimental colitis induced with acetic acid

Objective: This study was carried out to determine the possible protective and therapeutic effects of NHDC in rats with colitis induced with acetic acid. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out using a total of 28 female Wistar albino rats weighing between 250 and 350 g. The rats were divided into 4 equal groups as control, colitis, treatment, and prophylactic treatment. Biochemical analyzes were performed with appropriate kits in serum and intestinal homogenate. In addition, histopathological and immunohistochemical evaluations were performed on colon tissues. In the analysis of the data after testing the normality with the Shapiro Wilk test, the ANOVA test was used, if this test was significant Tukey's HSD test was used as the post hoc test. Results: In our study, when the colitis group and the treatment groups were compared, statistically significant results were found in IL-10, 8-OHdG, MDA, MPO, TNF-α, NF-kB, TGF-β1 and COX-2, TOS, TAS, IFN-γ values. (p<0.05). No statistically significant results were found in CAT and IL-6 values. In addition, NHDC provided histopathological improvement and reduced tissue damage caused by acetic acid. Caspase-3 score was found significantly lower in the treatment and prophylactic treatment groups compared to the colitis group. Conclusion: In this study, it was concluded that NHDC can improve the oxidative damage and tissue damage caused by colitis by exhibiting antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Its use for ulcerative colitis and other autoimmune diseases is promising for the future, as it is an alternative treatment with no side effects. Key words: Anti-inflammatory, Antioxidant, Neohesperidin dihydrochalcone, Ulcerative colitis.