ABSTRACT
Curcumin and artemisinin are commonly used in traditional East Asian medicine. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effects of these active compounds on xanthine oxidase (XO) using allopurinol as a control. XO was purified from the serum of arthritis patients through ammonium sulfate precipitation (65%) and ion exchange chromatography on diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-cellulose. The specific activity of the purified enzyme was 32.5 U/mg protein, resulting in a 7-fold purification with a yield of 66.8%. Molecular docking analysis revealed that curcumin had the strongest interaction energy with XO, with a binding energy of -9.28 kcal/mol. The amino acid residues Thr1077, Gln762, Phe914, Ala1078, Val1011, Glu1194, and Ala1079 were located closer to the binding site of curcumin than artemisinin, which had a binding energy of -7.2 kcal/mol. In vitro inhibition assays were performed using nanocurcumin and artemisinin at concentrations of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 µg/mL. Curcumin inhibited enzyme activity by 67-91%, while artemisinin had a lower inhibition ratio, which ranged from 40-70% compared to allopurinol as a control.
Subject(s)
Artemisinins , Arthritis , Curcumin , Xanthine Oxidase , Xanthine Oxidase/antagonists & inhibitors , Xanthine Oxidase/blood , Curcumin/chemistry , Curcumin/pharmacology , Artemisinins/chemistry , Artemisinins/pharmacology , Humans , Arthritis/blood , Arthritis/enzymology , Molecular Docking Simulation , Allopurinol/chemistry , Allopurinol/pharmacology , Protein BindingABSTRACT
The emergence and pandemic of COVID-19 has rapidly become a global concern. In Italy, on 27 March 2020, there were 8165 deaths and 80539 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Demographic situations, like age profiles is reported to be the cause of high case fatality rate (CFR) in Italy. In Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet grasped epic proportion, but the estimation of CFR is still needed. We compared the CFR observed in Italy with the age profiles in 46 Africa countries and 2 territories which are already confirmed COVID-19 case. The estimation of the CFR in Africa ranges between (1.0%-5.4%) while in Italy is 10.1%. The five highest CFR countries and territories in Africa are Reunion (5.4%), Mauritius (5.1%), Tunisia (3.9%), Seychelles (3.8%) and Morocco (3.3%). The last three countries with low CFR are Uganda (1.0%), Zambia (1.1%) and Angola (1.1%). The observed difference is related to the age profiles.
