IN-SILICO EXPLORING THE EFFECT OF POTENTIAL PHYTOCHEMICALS AS DIABETES THERAPEUTICS

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus, a serious metabolic disease caused by an unbalanced blood glucose level, continues to be a significant global burden, despite the availability of numerous treatments to manage the level. As a result, there is an essential need for an innovative approach to diabetes treatment. In research, Diabetes mellitus has been connected to the generation of free radicals and its antioxidant capacity. Phytochemicals, which are plant-derived metabolites that act as antioxidants and free radical scavengers, are used in a wide variety of medical applications. In this work, we applied computational techniques to evaluate the therapeutic potential of diverse plant phytochemicals that can be used against diabetes, as well as the control of differentially expressed genes via molecular pathways and biological processes which will aid in diabetes management. We analyzed a RNAseq dataset for diabetes taken from the GEO database and further processed it as per requirements into an usable report. A total of 379 genes were identified out of which 16 were getting upregulated and 363 downregulated genes. These genes were then matched with the phytochemicals from the plants that are known to have an effect for diabetes. Later on, gene enrichment analysis revealed that the downregulated DEGs were mainly enriched in the biological processes like regulation of apoptotic signalling, mitochondrial depolarisation and in Angiotensin-Activated Signalling. Upregulated DEGs were basically related to the biological process like cellular responses to organic cyclic compounds. Finally, hub genes and hub modules were identified that could show a potential significance in the Diabetes.