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Anti-diabetic and anti-Alzheimer’s disease activities of Angelica decursiva

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Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) constitute two global health issues. DM is an ever-increasing epidemic affecting millions of elderly people worldwide, causing major repercussions on patients’ daily lives, mostly due to chronic complications. Complications from DM can affect the brain, thereby characterizing DM as a risk factor for AD. In the present study, we examined the inhibitory activity of methanol extracts of different parts of 12 Angelica species against α-glucosidase, protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B), acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). The methanol extract of Angelica decursiva exhibited the highest inhibitory activities against α-glucosidase, PTP1B, AChE, and BChE and so was selected for further investigation. Repeated column chromatography based on bioactivity-guided fractionation yielded seven compounds (17). Among these compounds, nodakenin (1), nodakenetin (2), umbelliferone (3), cis-3′-acetyl-4′-angeloylkhellactone (4), 3′(R)-O-acetyl-4′(S)-O-tigloylkhellactone (5), isorutarine (6), and para-hydroxybenzoic acid (7) exhibited potent inhibitory activities against α-glucosidase, PTP1B, rat lens aldose reductase (RLAR), AChE, BChE, and β-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1). Our results clearly indicate the potential inhibition of α-glucosidase, PTP1B, RLAR, AChE, BChE, and BACE1 by A. decursiva as well as its isolated constituents, which could be further explored to develop therapeutic modalities for the treatment of DM and AD.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (2014R1A1A3051684 and 2012R1A6A1028677).

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Correspondence to Hyun Ah Jung or Jae Sue Choi.

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Yousof Ali, M., Jung, H.A. & Choi, J.S. Anti-diabetic and anti-Alzheimer’s disease activities of Angelica decursiva . Arch. Pharm. Res. 38, 2216–2227 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12272-015-0629-0

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