Pharmacological Interaction Between Alpha-Lipoic Acid and Propofol-Induced General Anesthesia in Rats Model

Abstract

Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is an endogenous antioxidant that is involved in the metabolism of energy inside the mitochondria, working as a cofactor of the enzyme-catalyzed reaction. It has strong free radical scavenging activity, which reduces all oxidative stress. The experimental study carried out the careful assessment of alpha-lipoic in adult male rats (n=29). The proposed study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of alpha-lipoic acid on Propofol-induced general anesthesia in rats. The median effective dose (ED₅₀) of alpha-lipoic acid was 45.43 mg/kg upon the intraperitoneal injection method via the up-and-down method. The paper further examined the effects of three doses of alpha-lipoic acid (30 , 60 and 120 mg/kg of 6 rats / group) on the onset, duration, and recovery periods of Propofol-induced anesthesia. The results indicated that the onset time with recovery periods was significantly reduced and the duration of anesthesia prolonged with a dose-dependent effect compared to that of the control group (p < 0.05). These statistics suggest that ALA can potentiate the effects of propofol and might have clinical implications in terms of improving the quality of anesthesia and recovery processes.