Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Diabetic Activity of Ferruginan, a Natural Compound from IOlea ferruginea/I

• Published in: Processes 2023-02, Vol.11 (2)
• Main Authors: Rauf, Abdur, Rashid, Umer, Shah, Zafar Ali, Rehman, Gauhar, Bashir, Kashif, Jamil, Johar, Iftikhar, Rahman, Abdur, Alsahammari, Abdulrahman, Alharbi, Metab, Al-Shahrani, Abdulmajeed, Ribaudo, Giovanni
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Anti-inflammatory drugs; Glucose metabolism; Inflammation; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Metronidazole
• ISSN: 2227-9717; 2227-9717
• DOI: 10.3390/pr11020545

Inflammation is a complex response of the human organism and relates to the onset of various disorders including diabetes. The current research work aimed at investigating the anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic effects of ferruginan, a compound isolated from Olea ferruginea. Its in vitro anti-inflammatory activity was determined by using the heat-induced hemolysis assay, while the anti-diabetic effect of the compound was studied by the yeast cell glucose uptake assay. Ferruginan exhibited a maximum of 71.82% inhibition of inflammation and also increased the uptake of glucose by yeast cells by up to 74.96% at the highest tested concentration (100 µM). Moreover, ferruginan inhibited α-amylase dose-dependently, by up to 75.45% at the same concentration. These results indicated that ferruginan possesses promising anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties in vitro, even if at high concentrations. To provide preliminary hypotheses on the potentially multi-target mechanisms underlying such effects, docking analyses were performed on α-amylase and on various molecular targets involved in inflammation such as 5′-adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK, PDB ID 3AQV), cyclooxygenase (COX-1, PDB ID 1EQG, and COX-2, 1CX2), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α, PDB ID 2AZ5). The docking studies suggested that the compound may act on α-amylase, COX-2, and AMPK.