In silico and in vivo protective effect of Morus nigra leaves on oxidative damage induced by iron overload

Abstract

Morus nigra L. is a plant popularly known as ‘amoreira preta’, very used in folk medicine. Iron overload (hemochromatosis) is a clinical condition that causes damage to various tissues due to oxidative stress. Therapy to control iron overload is still unsatisfactory. The protective effect on oxidative stress induced by iron overload was verified. Phytochemical characterization was evaluated by UHPLC-MS/MS. The in silico toxicity predictions of the main phytochemicals were performed via computer simulation. To induce iron overload, the animals received iron dextran (50 mg/kg/day). The test groups received doses of 500 and 1000 mg/kg of M. nigra extract for six weeks. Body weight, organosomatic index, serum iron, hepatic markers, cytokines, interfering factors in iron metabolism, enzymatic and histopathological evaluations were analyzed. Vanillic acid, caffeic acid, 6-hydroxycoumarin, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, rutin, quercitrin, resveratrol, apigenin and kaempferol were identified in the extract. In addition, in silico toxic predictions showed that the main compounds presented a low probability of toxic risk. The extract of M. nigra showed to control the mediators of inflammation and to reduce iron overload in several tissues. Our findings illustrate a novel therapeutic action of M. nigra leaves on hemochromatosis caused by iron overload.

Keywords:

• Iron overload
• toxicity
• hemochromatosis
• hepcidin
• bioinformatics

Acknowledgments

The present article is part of the master's thesis entitled ‘Avaliação do perfil fitoquímico, toxicidade e comportamento do extrato das folhas de Morus nigra Linnaeus frente à sobrecarga de ferro’, (in english, ‘Evaluation of the phytochemical profile, toxicity and performance of the extract of Morus nigra Linnaeus leaves against iron overload’) from the graduate program in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support of CAPES/Brazil and Bioclin/Quibasa for the donation of commercial kits.