Pharmacokinetic properties of biomass-extracted substances isolated by green solvents

Jablonsky, M., Haz, A., Burcova, Z., Kreps, F., and Jablonsky, J. (2019). "Pharmacokinetic properties of biomass-extracted substances isolated by green solvents," BioRes. 14(3), 6294-6303.

Abstract

According to the literature, approximately 41 nutraceutical compounds have been isolated from different types of biomass using green solvents. It is important to collect information on the pharmacokinetic properties of the nutraceutical substances from biomass isolated according to the published papers. The pharmacokinetic properties of the bioactive substances extracted by green solvents, such as the molecular weight, logP, AlogP, H-bond acceptor, H-bond donor, total polar surface area, atom molar refractivity, number of rotatable bonds, number of atoms, rotatable bond count, number of rigid bonds, number of atom rings, and number of H-bonds, were calculated with a drug-likeness tool. In practical terms, the original and most well-known Lipinski’s Rule of Five (Ro5) was applied to 28 substances, namely 3-hydroxytyrosol; apigenin; artemisinin; bergapten; bilobalide; biochanin A; caffeic Acid; caffeoylmalic acid; catechins; cinnamic acid; curcumin; daidzei; daidzin; epicatechin; gallic acid; genistein; ginkgolide A; ginkgolide B; levofloxacin; luteolin; naringenin; p-coumaric acid; protocatechuic acid; psoralen; quercetin; trans-ferulic acid; tyrosol, and vanillin.

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Pharmacokinetic Properties of Biomass-extracted Substances Isolated by Green Solvents

Michal Jablonsky,^a,* Ales Haz,^a Zuzana Burcova,^b Frantisek Kreps,^b and Jozef Jablonsky ^c,d

Keywords: Green solvents; Deep eutectic solvents; Pharmacokinetic properties; Nutraceutical compounds

Contact information: a: Institute of Natural and Synthetic Polymer, Department of Wood, Pulp, and Paper; Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, Bratislava, 812 37, Slovak Republic; b: Institute of Food Science and Nutrition, Department of Food Science and Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, Bratislava, 812 37, Slovak Republic; c: Central Military Hospital SNP Ruzomberok – Teaching Hospital, Gen. Miloša Vesela 21, 03426 Ruzomberok, Slovak Republic; d: St. Elisabeth University of Health Care and Social Work Bratislava, Nám.1.mája č. 1, 810 00 Bratislava, Slovak Republic; *Corresponding author: michal.jablonsky@stuba.sk

INTRODUCTION

Over the past few decades, a lot of research has been done that has shown biomass feedstocks to have remarkable potential. The revealed potential is associated with the isolation of biologically and pharmacologically active substances. Also, these biomass-extracted compounds have numerous promising applications. Several papers have been published on the biological activities, characteristics, and functions of these substances in the pharma and food industries. Biomass is a source of non-polar and polar chemical compounds, such as fats, saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, resins, resin acids, waxes, flavonoids, terpenoids, stilbenes, ligands, alkaloids, and phenolic and polyphenolic compounds. Extracted compounds have antioxidant, antimycotic, cytotoxic, antiviral, antitumor, antimalarial, insecticidal, antimutagenic, tumorigenic, pharmacokinetic activities, and other properties (Jablonsky et al. 2017). The physical properties and predicted absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion properties of 237 extractives have been discussed in a recently published study by Jablonsky et al. (2017). Most of these substances may be used as fine chemicals, and some have already been used for pharmacological purposes. Extracts isolated from softwood barks contain hundreds of natural products, some of which have cytotoxic (25 identified substances), antioxidant (26 substances), fungicidal (20 substances), and antibacterial (42 substances) properties. Additionally, some of these substances are repellents (nine substances) and antifeedants (two substances), while others may cause growth inhibition (eight substances), increase the activity of pheromones, or act as pheromones (10 substances) (Jablonsky et al. 2017). Natural substances play a vital role in the prevention and cure of various diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, and other neuronal dysfunctions. Recently published works have indicated that phytochemicals containing polyphenolic antioxidants might potentially hinder neurodegeneration, and improve memory and cognitive functions (Alam et al. 2018).

Information on the pharmacokinetic properties obtained with various prediction software programs could be used to design drug molecules for various applications with an optimum bioavailability and low or null toxicity (Singh 2016). The IUPAC definition of Pharmacokinetics is: Process of the uptake of drugs by the body, the biotransformation they undergo, the distribution of the drugs and their metabolites in the tissues, and the elimination of the drugs and their metabolites from the body over a period of time. Knowledge of pharmacokinetic principles helps prescribers adjust dosage more accurately and rapidly (IUPAC 1997). In the field of biomass and biowaste valorization, a number of techniques associated with green solvents are used, and their strong and weak points have been evaluated and reviewed (Mbous et al. 2017; Shishov et al. 2017; Zainal-Abidin et al. 2017; Fernández et al. 2018; Jablonsky et al. 2018).

This work focused on the use of deep eutectic solvents (DESs), natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs), and low-transition temperature mixtures (LTTMs) from recently published works to extract compounds from biomass and evaluated their pharmacokinetic properties.

EXPERIMENTAL

This paper is not of experimental character. Rather, it evaluates theoretically the pharmacokinetic properties of known compounds exhibiting potential for pharmaceutical application as drugs. All the mentioned compounds were previously extracted using DESs by the following authors from the mentioned kinds of plant-based biomass: Trachycarpus fortune(protocatechuic acid, catechins, epicatechin, and caffeic acid) (Fu et al. 2017); onions, olives, tomatoes, and pears (3-hydroxytyrosol, p-coumaric acid, apigenin, gallic acid, naringenin, caffeic acid, tyrosol, luteolin, and trans-ferulic acid) (Fernández et al. 2018); spike samples (genistein, daidzein, genistin, biochanin A, and daidzin) (Bajkacz and Adamek 2017); Ginkgo biloba (ginkgolide A, ginkgolide B, bilobalide, and ginkgolide C) (Su et al. 2017); Ficus carica L. (caffeoylmalic acid, rutin, psoralen, and bergapten) (Wang et al.2017); Moringa oleifera Lam. leaves (chlorogenic acid, multiflorin B, apigenin C-glycoside, quercetin glycoside, and kaempferol malonylglucoside) (Karageorgou et al. 2017); olive (Olea europaea) leaves (oleuropein and luteolin) (Dedousi et al. 2017); Platycladi cacumen (myricitrin, quercitrin, amentoflavone, and hinokiflaveno) (Zhuang et al. 2017); Artemisia annua leaves (Cao et al. 2017); food and herbal tea samples (curcumin) (Aydin et al. 2018); pigeon pea roots (genistin, genistein, and apigenin) (Cui et al. 2015); Tartary buckwheat hull (rutin) (Huang et al. 2017); and vanillin pods (vanillin) (González et al. 2018).

Basic Pharmacokinetic Parameters

The basic pharmacokinetic properties of the extractive substances, including the molecular weight (M_w), partition coefficient (logP), octanol-water partition coefficient (AlogP), H-bond acceptor (HBA), H-bond donor (HBD), total polar surface area (TPSA), atom molar refractivity (AMR), number of rotatable bonds (nRB), rotatable bond count (RC), number of rigid bonds (nRigidB), and number of hydrogen bonds (nHB), were calculated with the drug-likeness tool (DruLiTo 2018) (NIPER S.A.S., Nagar, India). All of the rules were applied independently of each other. The calculations were performed according to standard procedures described elsewhere (DruLiTo 2018).

Table 1. Parameters and Criteria for all the Rules and Filters

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Biomass extractive compounds are widely applied in the food, pharma, wood, furniture, and chemical industries, and they serve many purposes. The development and wide utilization of new green solvent systems (DES, NADES, and LTTM) in obtaining value-added substances support their introduction into various fields, such as the food, chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and waste processing industries. Case studies have documented instances of isolating interesting compounds by more selective ways. Substances isolable from natural sources (algae, plants, food leftovers, waste from industrial processing of biomass, etc.) by green solvents, particularly solvents originating from natural metabolites, have a chance to be utilized in pure and applied pharmacological research of new drugs and their use in practical applications. Bioactive compounds formed in plants result from complex metabolic processes, and their extraction hides some potential benefits. These benefits come from the compounds present in the contexture of plants and fruits that are extracted by naturally occurring substances (NADESs) and are thus fully compatible with the extracted material. The extracted substances may thus show better properties than those extracted by conventional solvents. Polyphenolic substances in particular, but also other types of compounds have remarkably important physiological properties. From this viewpoint, it is important to collect information on the pharmacokinetic properties of substances isolated by green solvent systems.

In a broad sense, the basic pharmacokinetic properties of bioactive substances extracted by DESs, NADESs, and LTTMs include the M_w, logP, AlogP, HBA, HBD, TPSA, AMR, nRB, RC, nRigidB, and nHB. The values of these properties were calculated by DruLiTo techniques (Daina et al. 2017). The logP is a key parameter in studies into the environmental fate of chemicals and for the molecular hydrophobicity. Hydrophobicity affects the drug/cure absorption, bioavailability, hydrophobic drug interaction with a receptor, molecule metabolism, and toxicity (Swamy et al. 2011). A logP value less than 5 was prioritized for a drug-likeness feature. Restrictions for using the HBA, HBD, logP, and M_w were stipulated by Lipinski et al. (2001), which helped in introducing other parameters, e.g., those characterizing the experimental data on transport. An interesting and useful parameter is the knowledge of the behaviour of polar atoms in a molecule that defines the TPSA, according to Lipinski’s rule of five or simply the rule of five (Ro5), which is a rule of thumb to evaluate the drug-likeness or determine whether a chemical compound with a certain pharmacological or biological activity has properties that would make it a likely orally active drug in humans. This parameter predicted the absorption of substances and transport data. Calculations with DruLiTo are dependent on various drug-likeness rules, namely Lipinski’s rule, Veber’s rule, Ghose filter, the BBB rule, CMC-50 like rule, and quantitative estimate of the drug-likeness (QED). Taking these rules and restrictions into account allows for a direct research orientation to determine selected substances that have the required parameters and apply them in a purposefully specified field of application or for further research (Daina et al. 2017).

The results obtained in the evaluation of 41 compounds by means of the mentioned rules or screenings are displayed in Table 2. From the data, 28 of the 41 compounds were extracted by DESs, NADEs, or LTTMs and met the requirement of Lipinski’s rule. From Lipinski’s rule, further development of extraction using DESs, NADESs, and LTTMs should be oriented for substances meeting the following requirements: M_w ≤ 500; logP ≤ 5; HBD ≤ 5; and HBA ≤ 10 (Table 1, bold compounds). The TPSA determines the bioavailability of natural substances per Veber’s rule for good oral bioavailability, which stipulates a number of rotatable bonds less than or equal to 10 and a TPSA less than or equal to 140 Å (Veber et al. 2002). When using a Ghose filter, the substances should fulfil the following requirements: M_w of 160 g/mol to 480 g/mol; logP of 0.4 to 5.6; atom count of 20 to 70; and refractivity of 40 to 130. There were up to 28 compounds that satisfied these requirements. Exploiting the virtual screening tool DruLiTo, the substances were evaluated by taking other rules and filters into account (Table 3). From the entire set of compounds, 28 compounds followed the Ro5 parameters, while 13 compounds (amentoflavone; apigenin 8-C-glycoside; genistin; ginkgolide C; hinokiflaveno; chlorogenic acid; kaempferol malonylglucoside; multiflorin B; myricitrin; oleuropein; quercetin diglycoside; quercitrin; and rutin) violated more than one of the rules. The latter substances can create problems in oral bioavailability. Twenty-five compounds out of the 41 compounds were orally bioavailable, which fulfilled the desired criteria of the Ghose Filter and Veber’s rule. They are denoted “1” to have passed the criterion for the given rule in Table 3. To be able to develop new drugs from these extractable compounds, the compounds should not only have a specific biological activity, but also have to exhibit therapeutic properties and the preferred pharmacokinetic profiles (Jablonsky et al. 2017). Lipinski´s Ro5 is used most commonly the assessment of drug-likeness, mainly traction in early-stage drug discovery because it is predictive, intuitive, and simple (Bickerton et al. 2012). An interesting parameter is QED. It can be used to rank chemical structures by their merit relative to target functions, which in this case are the properties of oral drugs. QED provides a different concept and generally unfavourable property may be tolerated such as are other parameters favourable. Thirty-three compounds out of the 41 compounds fulfilled the UwQED rules and 36 compounds were favourable for wQED rule (Tables 3 and 4).

Table 2. Drug-likeness Tool Descriptors Calculated by the DruLiTo Application

Table 3. Application of Different Rules/Filters for the Properties Calculated by the DruLiTo Application

UwQED – Unweighted Quantitative Estimate of Druglikeness; wQED –Weighted Quantitative Estimate of Druglikeness; The substance that is passed through the filter “1” or violated rules “0”

Table 4. Summary Results of Total Number of the Candidate Among the Molecules Passing and Violating all the Rules

CONCLUSIONS

The computed pharmacokinetic properties of biomass-extracted substances are key parameters for further progress and spreading of breakthrough technology for the extraction of biologically and pharmacologically active substances.
Twenty-eight compounds out of the 41 compounds considered were orally bioavailable, which fulfilled the desired criteria of the Ro5 (3-Hydroxytyrosol; Apigenin; Artemisinin; Bergapten; Bilobalide; Biochanin A; Caffeic Acid; Caffeoylmalic Acid; Catechins; Cinnamic Acid; Curcumin; Daidzei; Daidzin; Epicatechin; Gallic Acid; Genistein; Ginkgolide A; Ginkgolide B; Levofloxacin; Luteolin; Naringenin; p-Coumaric Acid; Protocatechuic Acid; Psoralen; Quercetin; trans-Ferulic Acid; Tyrosol and Vanillin) and 25 compounds fulfilled the desired criteria of the Ghose Filter and Veber’s rule.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (Contract Nos. APVV-15-0052, APVV-16-0088, APVV-17-0121), and VEGA 1/0403/19.

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Article submitted: January 29, 2019; Peer review completed: June 2, 2019; Revised version received: June 14, 2019; Accepted: June 15, 2019; Published: June 19, 2019.

DOI: 10.15376/biores.14.3.6294-6303