Journal of Bioequivalence & Bioavailability

Screening and characterization of molecules from Withania somnifera for neurological disorders

3^rd World Congress Bioavailability & Bioequivalence

March 26-28, 2012 Marriott Hotel & Convention Centre, Hyderabad, India

Teesta V Katte, Avnish bhattrai, Sahana Rao and Pradeep S and Savithri Bhat

Posters: J Bioequiv Availab

Abstract:

N eurodegenerative disorders have great social impact and are important factors determining the maximum healthy age and the mortality in the modern times. Some of the well known neurological disorders are Parkinson's , Alzheimer's , Huntington's ,amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Creutzfeldt?Jakob? s. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN?s health agency, mental and neurological disorders ranging from depression to Alzheimer?s currently strike 400 million people globally and are set to surge in the next two decades. Non- availability of drugs for the prophylaxis and treatment of these disorders throws a challenge for the researchers. The abundant natural molecules of plant origin and their modification has yielded not only the new lead molecules for drug discovery and development but also the nutraceuticals. Historically, Withania somnifera commonly known as Ashwagandha is being used as neurotonic for anxiety and neurological disorders. In the present study, we have created library of withanolides (in-house, database and virtual) for carryingout docking studies with the target proteins involved in neurodegeneration. The virtual library consists of molecules with functional groups interchanged based on Lipinski's Rule of Five. Further the molecules would be subjected to docking studies with varied parameters to come out with drug molecules with better pharmacokinetics and Pharmaco -dynamics properties. On the other hand, in- vitro culture conditions were optimized for both direct and indirect organogenesis from nodal explants of Withania somnifera. The methanolic extract prepared from the roots of these plantlets were subjected to HPLC for detection of compounds. These purified natural molecules will be exposed to Hek cell lines expressing mutant proteins responsible for neurodegeneration.