Research Article Artichoke Leaf Extract-Mediated Neuroprotection against Effects of Aflatoxin in Male Rats Enas A. Ibrahim , 1 Mokhtar I. Yousef , 1 Doaa A. Ghareeb , 2,3,4 Maria Augustyniak , 5 John P. Giesy , 6,7,8 Mourad A. M. Aboul-soud , 9 and Abeer El Wakil 10 1 Department of Environmental Studies, Institute of Graduate Studies and Research, Alexandria University, Egypt 2 Bioscreening and Preclinical Trial Lab, Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Egypt 3 Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Egypt 4 Pharmaceutical and Fermentation Industries Development Centre, The City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, Alexandria, Egypt 5 Institute of Biology, Biotechnology and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice, Bankowa 9, 40-007 Katowice, Poland 6 Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences & Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada S7N5B3 7 Department of Integrative Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48895, USA 8 Department of Environmental Science, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7266, USA 9 Chair of Medical and Molecular Genetics Research, Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 10219, Riyadh 11433, Saudi Arabia 10 Department of Biological and Geological Sciences, Faculty of Education, Alexandria University, Egypt Correspondence should be addressed to Mourad A. M. Aboul-soud; maboulsoud@ksu.edu.sa Received 8 May 2022; Revised 10 June 2022; Accepted 27 June 2022; Published 19 July 2022 Academic Editor: Riadh Badraoui Copyright © 2022 Enas A. Ibrahim et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Attenuation of adverse effects of aflatoxin (AFB 1 ) in brains of B 1 rats by extracts of leaves of artichoke was studied. The active ingredients in extracts of leaves of artichoke, Cynara scolymus L., were determined by HPLC analysis. In the 42-day experiment, rats were exposed to either sterile water, 4% DMSO, 100 mg artichoke leaf extract/kg body mass, 72 μgaflatoxin B 1 /kg body mass, or AFB 1 plus artichoke leaf extract. Neurotoxicity of AFB 1 was determined by an increase in profile of lipids, augmentation of plasmatic glucose and concentrations of insulin, oxidative stress, increased activities of cholinergic enzymes, and a decrease in activities of several antioxidant enzymes and pathological changes in brain tissue. Extracts of artichoke leaf significantly reduced adverse effects caused by AFB 1 , rescuing most of the parameters to values similar to unexposed controls, which demonstrated that adverse, neurotoxic effects caused by aflatoxin B 1 could be significantly reduced by simultaneous dietary supplementation with artichoke leaf extract, which itself is not toxic. 1. Introduction Mycotoxins are toxic fungal products that thrive in human food and animal feed, causing disease and death in humans and animals, when consumed in concentrations exceeding the limits [1, 2]. These toxigenic fungi contaminating agri- cultural grains have been divided into two groups. The first are those that invade seed crops and are known as “field” fungi and include species of the genera Alternaria, Fusarium, and Cladosporium, which reputedly gain access to seeds dur- ing plant development. The second class is described as “storage” fungi and includes species from the genera Penicil- lium and Aspergillus that proliferate during storage [3]. Both Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus produce aflatoxins (AFs) that can infect crops before harvesting. Contamination of field crops with aflatoxins causes losses Hindawi BioMed Research International Volume 2022, Article ID 4421828, 14 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/4421828