Adverse effects in skeletal muscle following the medicinal use of Nicotiana glauca

VASCONSUELO, ANDREA; MILANESI, LORENA (CORRESPONDING AUTHOR); MUSSO, FLORENCIA; PRONSATO, LUCÍA; LINCOR, DARÍO; FARAONI, M.BELÉN

BIOL. PHARM. BULL.

PHARMACEUTICAL SOC JAPAN

Lugar: Tokyo; Año: 2019 vol. 42 p. 671 - 679

0918-6158

Nicotiana glauca is a cosmopolitan shrub, used in medicine to treat swellings, wounds, soresand cancer. However, its users lack of knowledge of the adverse effects. We seek to evaluatethe effects of lipid extracts from N. glauca on myoblasts, identifying the compounds whichcause of undesirable effects. Myoblasts are important in muscle homeostasis, thus a high deathrate of them cause myopathies.We performed an ethanolic extraction from leaves of N. glauca and the extract was successivelypartitioned with hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate. The effects of extracts in C2C12 cellswere analysed by TUNEL, Mitotracker and DAPI staining, western blotting, real-time PCR andimmunofluorescence assays. Caspase activity was studied. The fraction with the highestapoptotic effects was analysed by chromatography, NMR and GC-MS spectrometry were usedto identify the apoptotic agent, after which its biological activity was evaluated.The extracts from Nicotiana glauca induced apoptosis in C2C12 cells involving caspase-3/7.We found that the extracts trigger a defence response in muscle through Akt and HSP27. Weidentified an apoptotic agent as palmitic acid.These data suggest that the use of N. glauca in hormone replacement therapy, or in othertherapies affects skeletal muscle homeostasis, worsening the negative effects of the menopause.Thus, the relevance of this work lies in the fact that it is the first time that a report about themolecular mechanism responsible for the side effects of medicinal use of N. glauca, has beenshown. Moreover the compound responsible for these effects has been identified.KeywordsPalmitic acid;