In Silico ANALYSIS OF PLANT Carthamus tinctoris AGAINST INSULIN RESISTANCE

Abstract

Insulin resistance disease is rising exponentially worldwide, emerging as the major cause of type II diabetes. Insulin resistance makes the insulin-sensitive tissues unresponsive towards insulin, these muscles include the liver, skeletal muscles and adipose tissue. This condition causes a hyperglycaemic condition in the cells. The available drugs that are used in the treatment of Insulin Resistance have some limitations, and they are less effective as well, therefore, phytochemicals from natural sources can be used to derive potential treatment. In this project, we made an effort to treat insulin resistance by using natural compounds that have fewer side effects. We did an in-silico study on the plant Carthamus tinctoris, commonly known as safflower. Carthamus tinctoris, or safflower is a plant of the Compositae or Asteraceae family. This plant has numerous active components such as flavonoids, phenylethanoid glycosides, fatty acids, and steroids. This study is made by using computational tools like Biovia Discovery Studio, PyRx virtual screening tool, Cytoscape and Autodock tools. In this research, we examined potential bioactive compounds of the plant safflower that can be used in the treatment of insulin resistance by stimulating the activity of Akt1. Docking results gave three potential ligands which are N-Coumaroyl serotonin ( 5458879), N-Feruloyl Serotonin (5969616) and Serotobenine (11725426) showing lowest binding energies -7.1 kcal/mol, -7.3 Kcal/mol and -7.5 Kcal/mol respectively thus showing higher binding affinities which were comparable to the binding energies of the reference (2S)-2-(4-chlorobenzyl)- 3-oxo-3-[4- (7H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4-yl)piperazin1-yl]propan-1-amine (46870040) showing binding energy of -7.0 Kcal/mol. In addition, these docking results also showed good results in bioavailability and toxicity analysis.