Gene ontology enrichment analysis of α-amylase inhibitors from in diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND

Although α-amylase is the choice of target to manage postprandial hyperglycemia, inhibitors of this enzyme may get absorbed into the systemic circulation and modulate proteins involved in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus. Hence, the present study aimed to identify α-amylase inhibitors from via and and predict their role in the modulation of multiple pathways involved in diabetes mellitus.

METHODS

α-amylase inhibitory activity of hydroalcoholic extract/fractions (s) and pure compounds from was performed using enzyme inhibitory assay. Multiple open-source databases and published literature were used to retrieve reported phytoconstituents present in and their targets. The network was constructed between α-amylase inhibitors, modulated proteins, and expressed pathways. Further, hit molecules were also confirmed for their potency to inhibit α-amylase using molecular docking and enzyme inhibitory assay. The glucose uptake assay was performed to assess the effect of hydrolcoholic extract/fraction(s) using rat hemidiaphragm.

RESULTS

Fraction rich in flavonoids showed the highest α-amylase inhibitory activity with a IC of 644.29 ± 4.36 µg/ml compared to other fractions. PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and p53 signaling pathway were predicted to be primarily modulated in the compound-protein-pathway network. Similarly, scutellarein was predicted as lead hit based on α-amylase inhibitory action, binding affinity, and regulated pathways. Further, α-amylase inhibitors were also predicted to modulate the pathways involved in diabetes complications like AGE-RAGE and FoxO signaling pathway. Fraction rich in flavonoids showed the highest glucose uptake in rat hemidiaphragm with an effective concentration of 534.73 ± 0.79 µg/ml.

CONCLUSIONS

The α-amylase inhibitors from  may not be limited within the gastrointestinal tract to inhibit α-amylase but may get absorbed into the systemic circulation and modulate multiple pathways involved in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus to produce synergistic/additive effect.