Curative anti-typhoid effect of Detarium microcarpum Guill. & Perr. (Leguminosae) hydroethanolic extract root bark based-on in vivo and molecular docking analyses

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Detarium microcarpum is used to treat typhoid fever, a major public health problem, by indigenous population in Africa. Though its preventive activities have been documented, the curative effect is still to be confirmed.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This study aimed at evaluating the curative effects of the hydroethanolic extract of Detarium microcarpum root bark on Salmonella typhimurium-induced typhoid in rat and exploring the in-silico inhibition of some bacterial key enzymes.

STUDY DESIGN

In vitro antioxydant, in vivo antisalmonella of the extract and in silico molecular docking assay on the isolated compounds were carried out to explore the anti-salmonella effects of Detarium microcarpum.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The in vitro antioxidant properties of the extract were evaluated using DPPH, ABTS and FRAP tests. The anti-salmonella activity of the extract was assessed through feacal sample from Salmonella typhimurium-infected rat cultured in Salmonella-Shigella agar (SS agar) medium. The affinity of isolated compounds (Rhinocerotinoic acid and Microcarposide) from the extract were performed on four key enzymes (Adenylosuccinate lyase, Acetyl coenzyme A synthetase, Thymidine phosphorylase and LuxS-Quorum sensor) using molecular docking simulation to elucidate the molecular level inhibition mechanism.

RESULTS

Crude extract of D. microcarpum root bark showed variable activities on DPPH (RSa50: 6.09 ± 1.04 μg/mL), ABTS (RSa50: 24.46 ± 0.27), and FRAP (RSa50: 23.30 ± 0.23). The extract at all the doses exhibited significant healing effect of infected rats, with the complete clearance. The extract restored hematological, biochemical and histological parameters closed to the normal control. The molecular docking results indicates that rhinocerotinoic acid and microcarposide present more affinity to the LuxS-Quorum sensor and Acetyl coenzyme A synthetase protein as compared to the others.

CONCLUSION

These results demonstrate potent anti-typhoid activities of the hydroethanolic of Detarium microcarpum root bark extract through antioxidant properties and high inhibitory affinity of its compounds on some bacterial key enzymes that justify its use as traditional medicine to typhoid fever.

Acetate dependence of tumors

Acetyl-CoA represents a central node of carbon metabolism that plays a key role in bioenergetics, cell proliferation, and the regulation of gene expression. Highly glycolytic or hypoxic tumors must produce sufficient quantities of this metabolite to support cell growth and survival under nutrient-limiting conditions. Here, we show that the nucleocytosolic acetyl-CoA synthetase enzyme, ACSS2, supplies a key source of acetyl-CoA for tumors by capturing acetate as a carbon source. Despite exhibiting no gross deficits in growth or development, adult mice lacking ACSS2 exhibit a significant reduction in tumor burden in two different models of hepatocellular carcinoma. ACSS2 is expressed in a large proportion of human tumors, and its activity is responsible for the majority of cellular acetate uptake into both lipids and histones. These observations may qualify ACSS2 as a targetable metabolic vulnerability of a wide spectrum of tumors.

[Peculiarities of ethanol metabolism in an Acinetobacter sp. mutant strain defective in exopolysaccharide synthesis]

Activities of the key enzymes of ethanol metabolism were assayed in ethanol-grown cells of an Acinetobacter sp. mutant strain unable to synthesize exopolysaccharides (EPS). The original EPS-producing strain could not be used for enzyme analysis because its cells could not to be separated from the extremely viscous EPS with a high molecular weight. In Acinetobacter sp., ethanol oxidation to acetaldehyde proved to be catalyzed by the NAD(+)-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.1.). Both NAD+ and NADP+ could be electron accepters in the acetaldehyde dehydrogenase reaction. Acetate is implicated in the Acinetobacter sp. metabolism via the reaction catalyzed by acetyl-CoA-synthetase (EC 6.2.1.1.). Isocitrate lyase (EC 4.1.3.1.) activity was also detected, indicating that the glyoxylate cycle is the anaplerotic mechanism that replenishes the pool of C4-dicarboxylic acids in Acinetobacter sp. cells. In ethanol metabolism by Acinetobacter sp., the reactions involving acetate are the bottleneck, as evidenced by the inhibitory effect of sodium ions on both acetate oxidation in the intact cells and on acetyl-CoA-synthetase activity in the cell-free extracts, as well as by the limitation of the C2-metabolism by coenzyme A. The results obtained may be helpful in developing a new biotechnological procedure for obtaining ethanol-derived exopolysaccharide ethapolan.

Acetyl-CoA synthetase 2, a mitochondrial matrix enzyme involved in the oxidation of acetate

Using peptide sequences derived from bovine cardiac acetyl-CoA synthetase (AceCS), we isolated and characterized cDNAs for a bovine and murine cardiac enzyme designated AceCS2. We also isolated a murine cDNA encoding a hepatic type enzyme, designated AceCS1, identical to one reported recently (Luong, A., Hannah, V. C., Brown, M. S., and Goldstein, J. L. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 26458-26466). Murine AceCS1 and AceCS2 were purified to homogeneity and characterized. Among C2-C5 short and medium chain fatty acids, both enzymes preferentially utilize acetate with similar affinity. The AceCS2 transcripts are expressed in a wide range of tissues, with the highest levels in heart, and are apparently absent from the liver. The levels of AceCS2 mRNA in skeletal muscle were increased markedly under ketogenic conditions. Subcellular fractionation revealed that AceCS2 is a mitochondrial matrix enzyme. [(14)C]Acetate incorporation indicated that acetyl-CoAs produced by AceCS2 are utilized mainly for oxidation.

Kinetic characterization of the [3'-32P]coenzyme A/acetyl coenzyme A exchange catalyzed by a three-subunit form of the carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase from Clostridium thermoaceticum

The ability of acetyl coenzyme A synthesizing carbon monoxide dehydrogenase isolated from Clostridium thermoaceticum to catalyze the exchange of [3'-32P]coenzyme A with acetyl coenzyme A is studied. This exchange is found to have a rate exceeding that of the acetyl coenzyme A carbonyl exchange also catalyzed by CO dehydrogenase ([1-14C]acetyl coenzyme A + CO in equilibrium acetyl coenzyme A + 14CO). These two exchanges are diagnostic of the ability of CO dehydrogenase to synthesize acetyl coenzyme A from a methyl group, coenzyme A, and carbon monoxide. The kinetic parameters for the coenzyme A exchange have been determined: Km(acetyl coenzyme A) = 1500 microM, Km(coenzyme A) = 50 microM, and Vmax = 2.5 mumol min-1 mg-1. Propionyl coenzyme A is shown to be a substrate (Km approximately 5 mM) for the coenzyme A exchange, with a rate 1/15 that of acetyl coenzyme A, but is not a substrate for the carbonyl exchange. CO dehydrogenase capable of catalyzing both these two exchanges, and the oxidation of CO to CO2, is isolated as a complex of molecular weight 410,000 consisting of three proteins in an alpha 2 beta 2 gamma 2 stoichiometry. The proposed gamma subunit, not previously reported as part of CO dehydrogenase, copurifies with the enzyme and has the same molecular weight on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis as the disulfide reductase previously separated from CO dehydrogenase in a final chromatographic step.

A new radiochemical method for determination of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex and acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase

A radiochemical method for assaying pyruvate dehydrogenase complex and acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase is described, using [2-14C]pyruvate and [1-14C]acetate, respectively, as radiolabeled precursors. The assay is based on nonenzymatic O-acylation of excess dithioerythritol (DTE) by enzymatically formed acetyl-coenzyme A. [1-14C]Acetyl-DTE is easily extracted from the incubation mixture by organic solvents and separated from the unreacted labeled substrates.

Subunit specificity of the two acetyl-CoA synthetases of yeast as revealed by an immunological approach

1. In the present paper, the two acetyl-CoA synthetases (acetate:Coenzyme A ligase (AMP-forming), EC 6.2.1.1) elaborated under aerobic or nonaerobic conditions are further differentiated by an immunological approach. 2. The subunit of the aerobic isozyme was prepared and found to be homogeneous by disc gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and by ultracentrifugal studies. An s20,w of 3.6 and an apparent molecular weight of 80,500 +/- 500 were calculated for this subunit. 3. The subunit was precipitated by antibody prepared against the aerobic enzyme. Antibody prepared against the subunit also reacted in precipitin tests with the subunit, but not with the native enzyme. The latter antibody nevertheless inhibited the native enzyme but not the nonaerobic isozyme.