IMMUNOPHARMACOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF PROTEASES FROM Catharanthus roseus ON VIRALLY INFECTED HUMAN WHOLE BLOOD
AMIT GUPTA *
Vidya Pratishthan’s School of Biotechnology, Baramati, District Pune, Maharashtra, India
ANKIT P. SHAH
Vidya Pratishthan’s School of Biotechnology, Baramati, District Pune, Maharashtra, India
SUSHAMA R. CHAPHALKAR
Vidya Pratishthan’s School of Biotechnology, Baramati, District Pune, Maharashtra, India
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Preliminary investigations have been carried out on various medicinal plants for the extraction of protein and then separate the protease content against specific protein antigen (Bovine serum albumin, BSA) and determined its protease activity on virally infected human whole blood samples. In the present study, our group focused on the leaves of Catharanthus roseus using variable concentration of phosphate buffered saline (PBS, pH 3 and 5) in order to separate the protein using Tris HCl and ice cold acetone. Thereafter separated the protease after incubation and centrifugation of protein content with Bovine serum albumin which was determined (protein and protease) through Nanodrop. In addition, these acidic proteases (pH 3 and 5) in order to observe its blood counts and CD14 monocyte surface marker on virally infected human whole blood samples using flow cytometry. The results showed that acidic proteases (500 µg) showed anti-viral activity as well as immunomodulatory activity in order to retained its normal blood profile range and activate the immune system. Overall, the results showed that acidic protease activity of leaves extracted from Catharanthus roseus may be responsible for anti-viral as well as immunomodulatory properties.
Keywords: Proteases, Catharanthus roseus, protein, protease