Confirmation of the Experimentally-Proven Therapeutic Utility of Madecassoside in an Aβ1-42 Infusion Rat Model of Alzheimer’s Disease by in Silico Analyses

The accumulation of amyloid β peptide 1 - 42 (Aβ1-42) in the brain of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients is known to be associated with neurodegeneration and memory impairment. More recently, we reported that madecassoside, an active component of Centella asiatica, improved memory impairment in an Aβ1-42 infusion rat model of AD, ameliorated neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells, and inhibited in vitro Aβ1-42 fibril formation. In the present study, we investigated the utility of in silico analyses in corroborating observed in vivo and in vitro effects of madecassoside in AD to further assess the therapeutic benefits of madecassoside. The 3D structure of Aβ1-42 was downloaded from the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics (RCSB) Protein Data Bank (PDB). The binding of madecassoside to Aβ1-42 was assessed by molecular docking. The chemical structure of madecassoside was modeled and converted to the PDB format. Madecassoside was found to successfully dock with Aβ1-42. Computational demonstration of the binding of madecassoside to Aβ1-42 further corroborated the inhibitory effect of madecassoside on Aβ1-42 fibrillogenesis which was demonstrated in our previous study. These data showed the potential utility of madecassoside as a preventive medication in Aβ1-42-induced neurodegenerative diseases such as AD.