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Cardiotoxicity can develop as a result of exposure to certain chemicals, poisons, or infectious agents as well as the continued use of higher doses of some medications. Natural plant foods such as cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale L.) may have free radical scavenging activity, thereby may play an important role in protecting the heart from chemotherapy-related cardiac dysfunction. In this study, the effect of cashew nut-supplemented diet on key indices relevant to cardiac function in cisplatin-induced cardiotoxic rats was evaluated. The rats were divided into six groups (n=6): rats fed a basal diet; cisplatin-induced rats fed a basal diet; cisplatin-induced rats fed a diet supplemented with processed cashew nut (10 and 20%); healthy rats fed a diet supplemented with processed cashew nut (10 and 20%) for fourteen days. Cisplatin-treated rats showed increased activities of acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase, adenosine deaminase, monoamine oxidase, phosphodiesterase-5 and arginase activities with a concomitant decrease in levels of nitric oxide, total thiol, total antioxidant capacity and reduced glutathione, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione-S-transferase activities both in the heart and plasma when compared with control. However, dietary supplementation with cashew nut significantly attenuated the cisplatin-evoked disturbances in the above-mentioned parameters. Also, feeding of experimental rats with cashew nut-supplemented diet for fourteen days restores significantly the heart histological alteration caused by cisplatin. Taken together, these findings imply that eating cashew nuts may represent a novel cardioprotective strategy during chemotherapy based on cisplatin. Therefore, it could be used as functional diet to prevent cardiac dysfunction caused by cisplatin.
A Sat, study studied this question.