Homologies between Bauhinia forficata Link subsp. pruinosa and pancreatic beta-cell specific transcriptional activator: a starting point for drug design new in diabetes?

Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease with an everincreasing incidence in world and has become the object of scientific research into the search for novel therapeutic alternatives. Bauhinia forficata Link, known locally as cow foot, has been traditionally used as tea in folk medicine of Brazil for treatment of DM. Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore the possible homology between the AA sequences of ribulose 1,5-biphosphate carboxylase large subunit, partial (chloroplast) [Bauhinia forficata subsp. pruinosa] and pancreatic beta-cell specific transcriptional activator [Homo sapiens], using databanks of proteins of National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Materials and methods: Were performed the comparison between the AA sequence of the GenBank: CAA94019.1-ribulose 1,5-biphosphate carboxylase large subunit, partial (chloroplast) [Bauhinia forficata subsp. pruinosa] and GenBank: BAC20389.1-pancreatic beta-cell specific transcriptional activator [Homo sapiens], available in the database of NCBI with the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLASTp) software. Results: The homology between the ribulose 1,5-biphosphate carboxylase large subunit, partial (chloroplast) [Bauhinia forficata subsp. pruinosa] and the pancreatic beta-cell specific transcriptional activator [Homo sapiens] ranged from 48.0% to 63.0% (Fig.1). Conclusion: Bioinformatics data, suggest a possible pathogenic link between ribulose 1,5-biphosphate carboxylase large subunit, partial (chloroplast) [Bauhinia forficata subsp. pruinosa] and pancreatic beta-cell specific transcriptional activator [Homo sapiens], and studies on this plant are important to the safe, effective development of pharmaceutical products for the treatment of diabetes.