Radioprotective role of clinical drug diclofenac sodium

The potential of clinical drug diclofenac sodium which is routinely used in clinics as non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs opens a new insight in development of radioprotector. The drug has shown its potential radioprotective efficacy in clonogenic cell survival in Chinese hamster V79 cells with a DMF of 1.4. The pBR322 plasmid DNA gets damaged by radiation in which the supercoiled form gradually disappears with increasing radiation dose. Diclofenac sodium has shown its radioprotective potential by scavenging radiation induced free radicals which are depicted by its ability in restoring the fraction of supercoiled form of plasmid DNA back to normal. 250 mu M concentration of the drug provides G(SSB) yield of 3.65 +/- 0.5 x 10(-9) Da(-1) Gy(-1). This drug has shown to have a free radical scavenging activity because the radical cation with blue color is converted to the colorless neutral form by addition of diclofenac sodium in ABTS assay. Whole body survival study has shown it to protect 45.5% of C57BL/6 mice at a lethal irradiation dose of 9 Gy. Therefore, this molecule offers a potential radioprotective ability besides being used routinely as analgesic and anti inflammatory compound. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.