Lycopene Protects The Kidney Against Nephrotoxicity

By Kyle J. Norton

Kidneys formed part of the secretory system, is a pair of the bean-shaped organ in the human body only filters out blood but also balances the body fluids by eliminating them and remove them through urinary secretion. The bean-shaped organs accompanied by the liver and skin form also detox the toxins in the body.

Nephropathy is kidney disease or damage that can be classified into 2 types
* Chronic kidney disease (CKD)
 Patients with CKD may experience symptoms of decreased urine output, fluid retention, that lead to swelling in the legs, ankles or feet, fatigue, nausea, and physical weakness

In severe cases, patients may also have symptoms of shortness of breath, confusion, and irregular heartbeat.

The worse cases of kidney damage if untreated can lead to renal failure, a condition that induces wastes and toxins accumulated in the blood. In this stage, dialysis and kidney transplant are the only options.

Believe it or not, most cases of kidney disease are found in the late stage.

Most patients at the advanced stage of chronic kidney damage may experience more severe symptoms of swelling in the hands and feet, back pain and urinating more or less than normal, accompanied by other health problem associated with weakened kidney function

* Acute Nephropathy
Acute Nephropathy is a condition totally depending on the types of toxicity that causes kidney damage. including nephrotoxicity.

Nephrotoxicity is a condition associated with toxicity in the kidneys, including toxic chemicals and medications, on renal function.

Although there are many ways that drugs may affect renal function, nephrotoxins are substances displaying nephrotoxicity.

In fact, the use of drugs has been found to cause approximately 20 percent of community-and hospital-acquired episodes of acute renal failure.

More precisely, Among older adults, the incidence of drug-induced nephrotoxicity may be as high as 66 percent, according to Dr. CYNTHIA A. NAUGHTON and colleagues in the American Family Physician.

The study continued, "Drugs shown to cause nephrotoxicity exert their toxic effects by one or more common pathogenic mechanisms. Drug-induced nephrotoxicity tends to be more common among certain patients and in specific clinical situations".

And, "Some patient-related risk factors for drug-induced nephrotoxicity are an age older than 60 years, underlying renal insufficiency (e.g., glomerular filtration rate of less than 60 mL per minute per 1.73 m2), volume depletion, diabetes, heart failure, and sepsis".

Lycopene is a phytochemical found in tomato in the class of carotenoid, a natural pigment with no vitamin A activity found abundantly in tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables, such as red carrots, watermelons, and papayas,

Tomatoes provide about 80% of the lycopene in the world diet. In plants, lycopene protects the host against excessive photodamage and perform various functions in photosynthesis.

With an aim to find a potent ingredient against kidney toxicity, researches examined the effects of lycopene on colistin-induced nephrotoxicity in a mouse model.

50 mice used in the study were randomly divided into 5 groups: the control group (saline solution), the lycopene group (20 mg/kg of body weight/day administered orally), the colistin group (15 mg/kg/day administered intravenously), the colistin (15 mg/kg/day) plus lycopene (5 mg/kg/day) group, and the colistin (15 mg/kg/day) plus lycopene (20 mg/kg/day) group, or 7 days. 

According to the tested analysis on a blood sample was taken 12 h after the last dose, Colistin treated group showed a significantly increased concentrations of BUN and serum creatinine, tubular apoptosis/necrosis, lipid peroxidation, and heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) activity associated with kidney injury and damage.

Levels of antioxidant enzymes produced by the tested mice such as glutathione (GSH), catalase (CAT), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were also decreased substantially.

. 
Injection of lycopene at the concentrations of 5 or 20 mg/kg in the Colistin treated group attenuated the changes in the levels of all aforementioned biomarkers.

The expression of NF-κB mRNA associated with the elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines significantly decreased, whereas the expression of antioxidant proteins that protect against oxidative damage and inflammation activated by (Nrf2) and HO-1 mRNA was significantly increased in the kidney compared to the colistin group.

In other words, lycopene protected the kidney cells integrity in the induction of nephrotoxicity against toxicity caused by colistin.

Based on the findings, researchers, "coadministration of 20 mg/kg/day lycopene can protect against colistin-induced nephrotoxicity in mice" and "This effect may be attributed to the antioxidative property of lycopene and its ability to activate the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway".

Taken altogether, lycopene found in tomato may be considered supplements for the prevention and treatment of nephrotoxicity, pending on the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of lycopene in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Protective effect of lycopene on adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity and nephrotoxicity by Yilmaz S1, Atessahin A, Sahna E, Karahan I, Ozer S. (PubMed)
(2) Lycopene attenuates colistin-induced nephrotoxicity in mice via activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway by Dai C1, Tang S1, Deng S1, Zhang S1, Zhou Y1, Velkov T2, Li J3, Xiao X. (PubMed)
(3) Drug-Induced Nephrotoxicity by CYNTHIA A. NAUGHTON.
(the American Family Physician)