Network pharmacological analysis of ethanol extract of Morus alba linne in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus

Strictosamide promotes wound healing through activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway

Nauclea officinalis, as a Chinese medicine in Hainan province, had the effect of treating lower limb ulcers, burn infections. In this paper, we studied the effect of Strictosamide (STR), the main bioactive compound in Nauclea officinals, on wound healing and explored its internal mechanism. Firstly, the wound healing potential of STR was evaluated in a rat model, demonstrating its ability to expedite wound healing, mitigate inflammatory infiltration, and enhance collagen deposition. Additionally, immunofluorescence analysis revealed that STR up-regulated the expression of CD31 and PCNA. Subsequently, target prediction, protein-protein interaction (PPI), gene ontology (GO), and pathway enrichment analyses were used to obtain potential targets, specific biological processes, and molecular mechanisms of STR for the potential treatment of wound healing. Furthermore, molecular docking was conducted to predict the binding affinity between STR and its associated targets. Additionally, in vivo and in vitro experiments confirmed that STR could increase the expression of P-PI3K, P-AKT and P-mTOR by activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. In summary, this study provided a new explanation for the mechanism by which STR promotes wound healing through network pharmacology, suggesting that STR may be a new candidate for treating wound.

Pharmacological and Pathological Effects of Mulberry Leaf Extract on the Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Mice

This study investigated the pharmacological and pathological effects of aqueous mulberry leaf extract on type 1 diabetes mellitus mice induced with an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ). Diabetic mice were randomized into six groups: control (normal group), model, metformin-treated mice, and high-dose, medium-dose, and low-dose mulberry. The mulberry-treated mice were divided into high-, medium-, and low-dose groups based on the various doses of aqueous mulberry leaf extract during gavage. The efficacy of the six-week intervention was evaluated by measuring levels of fasting plasma glucose, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate transaminase, blood urea nitrogen, gamma-glutamyl transferase, glucose, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, lactate dehydrogenase, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and recording body weight. Results revealed that mulberry leaf extract exhibited an ideal hypoglycemic effect, and the high-dose group was the most affected. Histology analysis, glycogen staining and apoptosis detection were used to study the extract's effects on the liver, kidney, and pancreatic cells of diabetic mice, enabling the assessment of its effectiveness and complications on a clinical and theoretical basis. It was shown that a certain concentration of aqueous mulberry leaf extract repaired the islet cells of type 1 diabetes mellitus mice, promoting normal insulin secretion. Herein, it was confirmed that mulberry leaf could be used to develop new hypoglycemic drugs or functional health food with broad applicability.

Identification of geographic origins of Morus alba Linn. through surfaced enhanced Raman spectrometry and machine learning algorithms

The leaves of Morus alba Linn., which is also known as white mulberry, have been commonly used in many of traditional systems of medicine for centuries. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), mulberry leaf is mainly used for anti-diabetic purpose due to its enrichment in bioactive compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids and polysaccharides. However, these components are variable due to the different habitats of the mulberry plant. Therefore, geographic origin is an important feature because it is closely associated with bioactive ingredient composition that further influences medicinal qualities and effects. As a low-cost and non-invasive method, surface enhanced Raman spectrometry (SERS) is able to generate the overall fingerprints of chemical compounds in medicinal plants, which holds the potential for the rapid identification of their geographic origins. In this study, we collected mulberry leaves from five representative provinces in China, namely, Anhui, Guangdong, Hebei, Henan and Jiangsu. SERS spectrometry was applied to characterize the fingerprints of both ethanol and water extracts of mulberry leaves, respectively. Through the combination of SERS spectra and machine learning algorithms, mulberry leaves were well discriminated with high accuracies in terms of their geographic origins, among which the deep learning algorithm convolutional neural network (CNN) showed the best performance. Taken together, our study established a novel method for predicting the geographic origins of mulberry leaves through the combination of SERS spectra with machine learning algorithms, which strengthened the application potential of the method in the quality evaluation, control and assurance of mulberry leaves.

Anti-Diabetic Activity of Bioactive Compound Extracted from Spondias mangifera Fruit: In-Vitro and Molecular Docking Approaches

Spondias mangifera is a drupaceous fruit popular for its flavour and health advantages. There is little scientific knowledge about S. mangifera, despite its widespread usage in traditional medicine, in the North-Eastern region of India. Inhibiting the key carbohydrate hydrolysing enzymes is one of the strategies for managing diabetes. Therefore, this study studied the antioxidant and anti-diabetic properties of different fraction S. mangifera fruit extract (SMFFs) from Indian geographical origin by in vitro experimental assays and silico docking simulation studies. The ADMET prediction for active substances was also investigated using the AdmetSAR database. Based on the binding affinity/molecular interactions between phytocompounds and target enzymes, in silico investigations were done to confirm the in vitro enzymatic inhibitory capability. β-sitosterol in EtOH-F was analysed using RP-HPLC with RP-C18 column as stationary phase and photo diode array detector. The percentage of β-sitosterol was found to be 1.21% ± 0.17% of total weight of extract (w/w). S. mangifera fruit ethanolic extract had a significant inhibitory concentration of 50% against free radicals produced by ABTS (89.71 ± 2.73%) and lipid peroxidation assay (88.26 ± 2.17%) tests. Similarly, the in vitro antidiabetic test findings indicated that S. mangifera inhibited alpha-amylase (73.42 ± 2.01%) and alpha-glucosidase (79.23 ± 1.98%) enzymes dose-dependently. The maximum glycosylated Hb percentage inhibitory activity shown in the ethanolic fraction was (83.97 ± 2.88%) at 500 µg/mL. The glucose uptake of the ethanolic fraction by the yeast cell showed significant (p < 0.05) at 500 µg/mL when compared with metformin (91.37 ± 1.59%), whereas the other fraction did not show the uptake of glucose by the yeast cell at the same concentration. In the docking study, the main phytoconstituents of S. mangifera fruit, such as oleanolic acid, beta-sitosterol, and beta amyrin, show strong affinity for pancreatic α-amylase. These results imply that S. mangifera has α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory properties and may be used as antidiabetic with antioxidant characteristics.