Amelioration of oxidative stress using N-acetylcysteine in canine parvoviral enteritis

Previously, antioxidants have not been evaluated for treatment of parvoviral diarrhea in dogs. In this study, antioxidant potential of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in dogs infected with canine parvovirus with a nonblinded randomized clinical trial has been carried out. A total 18 parvo-infected dogs were randomly divided into two groups: nine parvo-infected dogs were treated with supportive treatment and nine parvo-infected dogs were treated with NAC along with supportive treatment. Simultaneously, nine healthy dogs were kept as healthy control. In parvo-infected dogs, marked hemoconcentration, leucopenia, neutropenia and oxidative stress were noticed compared to healthy dogs. The NAC treatment progressively improved the leukocyte, neutrophil, monocyte, and eosinophil counts over the time in parvovirus-infected dogs compared to dogs that received only supportive treatment. In addition, NAC treatment significantly improved glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity and decreased nitrite plus nitrate (NOx) and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations on day 3 and 5 compared to supportive treatment in parvo-infected dogs. However, supportive treatment alone failed to ameliorate oxidative stress in the infected dogs till day 5. The results of this study suggest that NAC represents a potential additional treatment option that could be considered to improve the health condition and minimize the duration of hospitalization in case of canine parvoviral diarrhea.