RESUMEN
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22187.].
RESUMEN
Rauvolfia mannii is a plant from western and eastern areas of African continent and is widely used in folk medicine for the treatment of various diseases including malaria. Herein, one previously undescribed acylated triterpene (1), together with five already published natural products (2-6) were removed from its roots. The chemical structures of these compounds were determined by spectroscopic and spectrometric means (NMR, HRESIMS, IR and UV). In addition to the isolated triterpenoids, components 5 and 6 are also newly reported from the genus Rauvolfia. Moreover, some constituents were further tested against the chloroquine-sensitive strain of P. falciparum (3D7). It has been found that 3 and 4 showed a moderate antiplasmodial activity with IC50 values of 46.25 and 39.79 µM respectively.
RESUMEN
We investigated 1012 molecules from natural products previously isolated from the South African biodiversity (SANCDB, https://sancdb.rubi.ru.ac.za/), for putative inhibition of Onchocerca volvulus pi-class glutathione S-transferase (Ov-GST2) by virtual screening, MMGBSA, and molecular dynamics approaches. ADMET, docking, and MMGBSA shortlisted 12 selected homoisoflavanones-type hit molecules, among which two namely SANC00569, and SANC00689 displayed high binding affinities of -46.09 and -46.26 kcal mol-1, respectively towards π-class Ov-GST2, respectively. The molecular dynamics results of SANC00569 showed the presence of intermolecular H-bonding, hydrophobic interactions between the ligand and key amino acids of Ov-GST2, throughout the simulation period. This hit molecule had a stable binding pose and occupied the binding pockets throughout the 200 ns simulation. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report of any alleged anti-onchocerciasis activity referring to homoisoflavanones or flavonoids. Nevertheless, homoisoflavanones, which are a subclass of flavonoids, exhibit a plethora of biological activities. All these results led to the conclusion that SANC00569 is the most hypothetical Ov-GST2, which could lead the development of new drugs against Onchocerca volvulus pi-class glutathione S-transferase. Further validation of these ï¬ndings through in vitro and in vivo studies is required.