L-Carnosine protects against Oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy in colorectal cancer patients: A perspective on targeting Nrf-2 and NF-κB pathways

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Carnosine, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The study investigated the potential prophylactic effect of L-carnosine against acute oxaliplatin neurotoxicity in colorectal cancer patients with emphasis on the redox (Nrf-2, MDA), inflammatory (NF-κB, TNF-α), and apoptotic (caspase-3) parameters.

Why It Was Studied

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a common side effect afflicting cancer patients treated with oxalipatin based chemotherapy.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 65 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults, adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Patients were followed up for three months, then both arms were analyzed for neuropathy incidence/grade and any additional toxicities according to National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI-CTC version 4).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and pilot study.

Because people in this Carnosine study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Carnosine study would be practical.

A time span of three months appears in the methods.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols, Antioxidants, Apoptosis, Carnosine, Caspase 3 and Colorectal Neoplasms.

Author keywords: Caspase-3, L-carnosine, MDA, NF-κB, Nrf-2 and Oxaliplatin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and pilot study of Carnosine in 65 patients over three months.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2019 (Toxicology and applied pharmacology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Carnosine compound page, all human trials.