Maytenus octogona Superoxide Scavenging and Anti-Inflammatory Caspase-1 Inhibition Study Using Cyclic Voltammetry and Computational Docking Techniques

Francesco Caruso, Miriam Rossi, Eric Eberhardt, Molly Berinato, Raiyan Sakib, Felipe Surco-Laos, Haydee Chavez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The relationship between oxidative stress and inflammation is well known, and exogenous antioxidants, primarily phytochemical natural products, may assist the body’s endogenous defense systems in preventing diseases due to excessive inflammation. In this study, we evaluated the antioxidant properties of ethnomedicines from Peru that exhibit anti-inflammatory activity by measuring the superoxide scavenging activity of ethanol extracts of Maytenus octogona aerial parts using hydrodynamic voltammetry at a rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE). The chemical compositions of these extracts are known and the interactions of three methide-quinone compounds found in Maytenus octogona with caspase-1 were analyzed using computational docking studies. Caspase-1 is a critical enzyme triggered during the activation of the inflammasome and its actions are associated with excessive release of cytokines. The most important amino acid involved in active site caspase-1 inhibition is Arg341 and, through docking calculations, we see that this amino acid is stabilized by interactions with the three potential methide-quinone Maytenus octogona inhibitors, hydroxytingenone, tingenone, and pristimerin. These findings were also confirmed after more rigorous molecular dynamics calculations. It is worth noting that, in these three compounds, the methide-quinone carbonyl oxygen is the preferred hydrogen bond acceptor site, although tingenone’s other carbonyl group also shows a similar binding energy preference. The results of these calculations and cyclovoltammetry studies support the effectiveness and use of anti-inflammatory ethnopharmacological ethanol extract of Maytenus octogona (L’Héritier) DC.

Original languageEnglish
Article number10750
JournalInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume24
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

Keywords

  • DFT
  • Maytenus
  • antioxidants
  • caspase-1
  • docking
  • hydrodynamic voltammetry
  • hydroxytingenone
  • inflammation
  • pristimerin
  • tingenone

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Maytenus octogona Superoxide Scavenging and Anti-Inflammatory Caspase-1 Inhibition Study Using Cyclic Voltammetry and Computational Docking Techniques'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this