Isômeros da baicalina como potencial antídoto para a intoxicação por ricina.

Abstract

Ricin is a protein highly toxic provenied from the plant Ricinus communis, most recognized as mamona. This toxin has the capacity to inactivate the ribosomes, resulting in inhibition of protein sintesis, and as a consequence, cell death by apoptosis. This characteristic makes ricin a potential biological weapon, since on the most of cases of intoxication by ricin are due to accidental oral ingestion by small children, and animals, as well as the suicide attempt in the case of adults, making the intoxication by ricin a health problem for the general population. The objective of this work is to evaluate the baicalin molecule and its isomers as propably compounds on the combat of ricin action and in post-exposure the treatment, utilizing the methode of computational biology, molecular docking. The analisys demonstrated that isomers of baicalin apresented high capacity to inibiting the molecule of ricin as well a facility to make a spontaneous binding with it, corroboring with the sugered eficacy on the literature. However, the baicalin molecule has some characteristics that must be improved through modifications in its structure so that its bioavailability is adequate. Furthermore, this study appears as a guide to others who use docking as a tool in the search for compounds with possible inhibitory activity against different types of molecular targets.