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Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease affecting the central nervous system, with no curative medicine available. The use of herbal drugs and dietary supplements is increasing among people with MS (PwMS), raising a need for knowledge about potential interactions between conventional MS medicine and herbal drugs/dietary supplements. This systematic review provides information about the safety of simultaneous use of conventional MS-drugs and herbal drugs frequently used by PwMS. The study included 14 selected disease-modifying treatments and drugs frequently used for symptom-alleviation. A total of 129 published papers found via PubMed and Web of Science were reviewed according to defined inclusion- and exclusion criteria. Findings suggested that daily recommended doses of Panax ginseng and Ginkgo biloba should not be exceeded, and herbal preparations differing from standardized products should be avoided, especially when combined with anticoagulants or substrates of certain cytochrome P450 isoforms. Further studies are required regarding ginseng's ability to increase aspirin bioavailability. Combinations between chronic cannabis use and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs should be carefully monitored, whereas no significant evidence for drug-interactions between conventional MS-drugs and ginger, cranberry, vitamin D, fatty acids, turmeric, probiotics or glucosamine was found.

Diabetes mellitus is a widespread metabolic disorder that affects millions of people around the world. The disease is a major burden on both economic and social levels, and there is a need for improved drugs with fewer side effects in the management of the disease. Current methods for isolation of anti-diabetic lead compounds from complex mixtures suffer from low resolution and sensitivity, and there is a need for improved alternatives. In this work, magnetic ligand fishing combined with high-performance liquid chromatography - photodiode-array detection - high-resolution mass spectrometry - solid-phase extraction - nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (HPLC-PDA-HRMS-SPE-NMR) was developed and validated, with the aim of accelerating discovery of natural products targeting α-amylase. The enzyme was successfully immobilized onto magnetic beads and retained its catalytic activity for a period of 75 days, and the specificity of this method was successfully validated by testing the N-terminus coupled α-amylase immobilized magnetic beads on an artificial mixture. A proof of concept experiment, using a crude ethyl acetate extract of Ginkgo biloba leaves, proved that it was possible to fish out four α-amylase ligands. HPLC-PDA-HRMS-SPE-NMR analysis confirmed the presence of bilobetin, isoginkgetin, ginkgetin and sciadopitysin in the solutions resulting from α-amylase ligand fishing with Ginkgo biloba. IC50 curves revealed a reversed relationship between concentration of sciadopitysin and inhibition of α-amylase activity, suggesting that this compound activated the enzyme instead of inhibiting it.

Plants are well-recognized sources of inhibitors for -glucosidase - a key target enzyme for management of type 2 diabetes. Recently, two advanced bioactivity-profiling techniques, i.e., ligand fishing and high-resolution inhibition profiling, have shown great promises for accelerating identification of -glucosidase inhibitors from complex plant extracts. Non-specific affinities and non-specific inhibitions are major sources of false positive hits from ligand fishing and highresolution inhibition profiling, respectively. In an attempt to minimize such false positive hits, we describe a new screening approach based on ligand fishing and high-resolution inhibition profiling for detection of high-affinity ligands and assessment of inhibitory activity, respectively. The complementary nature of ligand fishing and high-resolution inhibition profiling was explored to Manuscript for Talanta 3 identify-glucosidase inhibitory ligands from a complex mixture, and proof-of-concept was demonstrated with crude ethyl acetate extract of Ginkgo biloba. In addition to magnetic beads with a 3-carbon aliphatic linker, -glucosidase was immobilized on magnetic beads with a 21-carbon aliphatic linker; and the two different types of magnetic beads were compared for their hydrolytic activity and fishing efficiency.