Nigella Sativa : A Potential Inhibitor for Insulin Fibril Formation

Abstract

The high order structure from proteins which are self-assembled are known as fibrils. They are collectively called as amyloid fibrils, which generally lead to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, Type II diabetes. Insulin fibril aggregation is identified to be the major cause of neurodegenerative diseases. The effect of Nigella sativa extract is analyzed based on the fibril inhibition process. The formed fibrils is reduced with the concentration increase of Nigella sativa extract. Insulin fibril is found in Type II diabetes patients after repeated insulin injections subcutaneously. Insulin fibrils are formed in organisms or humans irrespective of their places like hips, shoulder, hands and abdomen. These are evident from the anti-aggregation assay. Thioflavin T (ThT) fluroscence and congo red (CR) assay confirms the inhibition of insulin fibril in the presence of Nigella sativa (NS) extract. Further, inhibition of fibril was confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), where no insulin fibrils was detected whose secondary conformational changes are studied using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). It is confirmed that insulin fibril inhibition depends on the various concentration of Nigella sativa. Based on the results obtained, it is demonstrated that Nigella sativa extract inhibits the fibril formation and it also provides a therapeutic strategy to prevent insulin fibril formation.