Royal Jelly bioactive compounds and exercise improved cardiomyopathy and redox status in patients under methadone maintenance therapy: Randomized clinical trial

Drug abuse is one of the world's most significant health policy concerns. Long-time opium use is significantly associated with the incidence of coronary artery disease and altered liver enzyme concentration and function. In this randomized clinical trial, 80 men addicted to opium and who underwent methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) were randomized to four groups, including the control group, cases that performed resistance band exercise, cases that consumed Royal Jelly, cases that performed resistant band exercise and consumed Royal Jelly (100 mg/kg). Serum levels of antioxidative, cardiac, and liver function were measured at the baseline and end of the study (eight weeks). The vital proteins were screened by in silico analysis. Moreover, the authors found 18 microRNAs with a significant differential expression in the addiction status as dynamic monitoring biomarkers. The concentration of the catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were significantly increased in men who performed exercise and consumed Royal Jelly (RJ+EX) compared with the other groups. Moreover, we found that cardiac and liver function concentrations such as troponin-1, malondialdehyde, creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, alanine transaminase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase were improved in the RJ+EX group. Artificial intelligence and experimental tests concluded that consuming Royal Jelly and regular exercise training programs might be the adjunct protocol to MMT, improving quality of life and side effects of methadone therapy.