Molecules (May 2014)

Comparative Study on the Antioxidant and Anti-Toxoplasma Activities of Vanillin and Its Resorcinarene Derivative

  • Claudio B. S. Oliveira,
  • Ywlliane S. R. Meurer,
  • Marianne G. Oliveira,
  • Wendy M. T. Q. Medeiros,
  • Francisco O. N. Silva,
  • Ana C. F. Brito,
  • Daniel de L. Pontes,
  • Valter F. Andrade-Neto

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules19055898
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19, no. 5
pp. 5898 – 5912

Abstract

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A resorcinarene derivative of vanillin, resvan, was synthesized and characterized by spectroscopic techniques. We measured the cytotoxicity (in vivo and in vitro), antioxidant and anti-Toxoplasma activities of vanillin and the resorcinarene compound. Here we show that vanillin has a dose-dependent behavior with IC50 of 645 µg/mL through an in vitro cytotoxicity assay. However, we could not observe any cytotoxic response at higher concentrations of resvan (IC50 > 2,000 µg/mL). The in vivo acute toxicity assays of vanillin and resvan exhibited a significant safety margin indicated by a lack of systemic and behavioral toxicity up to 300 mg/kg during the first 30 min, 24 h or 14 days after administration. The obtained derivative showed greater antioxidative activity (84.9%) when comparing to vanillin (19.4%) at 1,000 μg/mL. In addition, vanillin presents anti-Toxoplasma activity, while resvan does not show that feature. Our findings suggest that this particular derivative has an efficient antioxidant activity and a negligible cytotoxic effect, making it a potential target for further biological investigations.

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