Screening Native Botanicals for Bioactivity: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Thursday, August 6, 2015: 2:45 PM
Bayside A (Sheraton Hotel New Orleans)
Elizabeth Floyd, Assistant Professor, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Anik Boudreau, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Diana M. Cheng, Rutgers,The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ
Carmen Ruiz, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
David Ribnicky, Rutgers,The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ
C. Ray Brassieur, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA
Larry Allain, USGS National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, LA
William T. Cefalu, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Plant-based therapies have been used in medicine throughout recorded history. Information about the therapeutic properties of plants can often be found in local cultures as folk medicine is communicated from one generation to the next. We are investigating native Louisiana plants that were used in Creole folk medicine to identify potential plant-based sources of therapeutic compounds for treating insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. To screen native southwest Louisiana plants, we use an interdisciplinary approach that combines expertise in disciplines ranging from cultural anthropology and botany to biochemistry and endocrinology.
Translation of accounts of Creole folk medicine has yielded a list of plants with documented use in treating a variety of conditions, including inflammation. These plants are collected, vouchered and catalogued prior to extraction of the soluble components. The extracts are analyzed for bioactivity in regulating inflammatory responses in macrophages or fatty-acid induced insulin resistance in C2C12 skeletal muscle cells. Our screen found that several extracts alter gene expression of inflammatory markers in macrophages. Multiplex analysis of kinase activation in insulin signaling pathways in skeletal muscle also identified a subset of extracts that alter insulin-stimulated AKT phosphorylation in the presence of fatty acid-induced insulin resistance.
Our experience indicates that an interdisciplinary approach to screening botanical sources of therapeutic agents can be successfully applied to identify native plants as potential sources of therapeutic agents in treating insulin resistance in skeletal muscle or inflammatory processes associated with obesity-related insulin resistance.
