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A Mechanistic Study Of S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine Protection Against Acetaminophen Hepatotoxicity, James Michael Brown

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Acetaminophen (APAP) toxicity remains the leading cause of drug induced liver failure in the United States. The current therapy for APAP toxicity is N-acetylcysteine (NAC). NAC must be administered within eight hours of APAP overdose for maximum efficacy. That, coupled with the fact that APAP toxicity may not be overtly evident, makes an alternative therapeutic intervention worth exploring. Previous work by our laboratory has demonstrated that S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe) prevents APAP toxicity when given following APAP overdose in C57Bl/6 mice at a level comparable to NAC. The focus of the current work was to examine the mechanistic aspects of this protection …