An increasing environmental pollution has elevated the number of deleterious pollutants present in the atmosphere. Among these, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, such as 7,12-dimethylbenz(α)anthracene (DMBA) have posed serious threat to the health of both animals and plants. Most of these compounds are genotoxic in nature and an elevated exposure of these carcinogens increases the risk of initiation and promotion of cancer. The low efficacy, specific target sites, and large number of side effects of the available drugs have encouraged researchers to look for an alternate drug with high biological potency. The best alternate for this is the use of medicinal plants and especially their phytochemicals, such as glucosinolate hydrolytic products. A large number of glucosinolate hydrolytic products are available in different plant species, but sulforaphane has emerged as the most potent among them. This important compound is interconverted to 4-methylthiobutyl isothiocyanate (4-MTBITC) or erucin in the body of an organism. In contrast to sulforaphane, not much work has been done on the biological properties of 4-MTBITC. The current study, therefore, focuses on evaluating the renoprotective activity of 4-MTBITC on DMBA induced nephrotoxicity in male Wistar rats.

The bioprotective efficacy of erucin was evaluated in male Wistar rats treated with DMBA using the levels of serum creatinine, urea, sodium, and potassium.

The treatment with erucin significantly ameliorated the DMBA induced stress in male Wistar rats.

Erucin or 4-MTBITC has the potential to impart protection to male Wistar rats against genotoxic carcinogen (DMBA) induced stress.

Arora R, Kukreja S, Mannan R, Bhushan S, Arora S. Evaluating the Renoprotective Activity of 4-Methylthiobutyl Isothiocyanate against 7,12-Dimethylbenz(α)anthracene generated Radical Stress in Male Wistar Rats. Curr Trends Diagn Treat 2017;1(1):10-14.