Background: Urena sinuata L. is a shrubby wild plant used for centuries in folk medicine to treat bronchitis, rheumatism, fever, and waist pain. It is evident that it possesses antioxidant, anti-diarrheal, anti-atherothrombotic, sedative, anxiolytic, and analgesic effects in various test systems.

Objectives: The goal of this research was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anxiolytic activity along with the preliminary phytochemical investigation of the ethanolic leaf extract of U. sinuata (ELEUS). Additionally, we also performed an in silico study to see the possible anxiolytic effects of its previously reported phytochemicals.

Methods: Scavenging methods for nitric oxide (NO^●), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and hydroxyl radical (^●OH) were used to determine antioxidant activity. The egg albumin model was used to assess anti-inflammatory action, while the elevated plus maze tested anxiolytic activity in adult male Swiss albino mice. For the latter case, the control group received vehicle (10 mL/kg), the standard group received diazepam (DZP: 2 mg/kg), and the test groups received ELEUS at 200 and 400 mg/kg. Additionally, both the test groups were combined with DZP 2 mg/kg. All these treatments were given via oral gavage. Finally, we performed an in silico study to check the possible interactions of its literature-claimed compounds with gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)_A receptor subunits.

Results: Findings suggest that the ELEUS exhibited significant (p < 0.05) concentration-dependent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. The highest activity was observed at 100 μg/mL. In mice, the extract had an anxiolytic effect that was significant (p < 0.05) and was dose-dependent. ELEUS 200 and 400 mg/kg were seen to potentiate the anxiolytic activity of the standard drug DZP (2 mg/kg) significantly (p < 0.05). Quercetagetin-6,7-O-dimethylether-3′-β-D-gluco-pyranoside, querceta-getin-6,7-O-dimethylether-4′-β-D glucopyranoside, and quercetagetin-6,7-O-dimethylether-3-β-D-glucopyranosid of U. sinuata showed better interaction capacity with the GABA_A receptor protein (α₁, α₂, α₃, α₄, α₅, and α₆) than the standard drug (diazepam).

Conclusions: ELEUS possesses many important phytochemical groups and exhibits concentration-dependent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects as well as dose-dependent anxiolytic effects. U. sinuata may be a good source of plant-based therapeutically active lead compounds for inflammation, oxidative stress, neurological diseases, and disorders like anxiety.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most complex neurodegenerative disorder associated with the loss of dopaminergic neurons and has an unknown etiology. Several pathogenic mechanisms including inflammation, oxidative stress, protein dysfunction, apoptosis, mitochondrial dysfunction, abnormal α-synuclein, and autophagy are associated with this disorder. The current existing medications show limited efficacy and adverse health effects. Hence, in such a scenario, phytocompounds can provide an alternate way of effective treatment by repurposing these natural molecules using computational based approaches.

Methods: In this study, we explored various plant bioactives as possible inhibitors against the Parkin gene using in silico approaches. In the present study, the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) properties of the bioactives were determined via predicting small-molecule pharmacokinetic properties (pkCSM). Moreover, the evaluation of molecular docking, dynamics, binding pockets, and protein-protein interactions of the protein was determined via AutoDock Vina, WEBnm@, Computed Atlas of Surface Topography of Proteins (CASTp), and Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING).

Results: The findings obtained from molecular docking analysis revealed that Cytochalasin E was the most effective bioactive compound that showed the highest binding affinity of –8.6 kcal/mol when docked against the selected protein. In this study, all the bioactives followed Lipinski's rule of five except Sitoindoside IX. The CASTp tool identified the binding pockets in the protein with the top binding site having an accessible surface (AS) area of 250.39 Ų and an accessible surface (AS) volume of 203.03 ų respectively. STRING tool determined the protein-protein interactions by visualizing protein structure.

Conclusion: The findings obtained from this study suggest that Cytochalasin E could be repurposed as a potential inhibitor targeting Parkin and these outcomes may prove significant in the process of drug designing. However, further in vitro and in vivo studies are required to validate these results.