Evaluation of in Vitro and in Vivo Anti-neuroinflammatory and Genotoxic Activities of the Alkaloid Tryptophol-5-O-β-D-glucopyranoside from Ocotea Minarum

Ocotea minarum (Nees & Mart.) Mez is a tree belonging to the Lauraceae family and found in the Brazilian Cerrado ecosystem. Although the chemical composition of this species has already been described, little is known about the biological activities of one of the constituents of its fruits-the alkaloid tryptophol-5-O-& beta;-D-glucopyranoside. In the present study, we assessed the anti-neuroinflammatory, mutagenic and recombinogenic properties of this indole alkaloid. Cytotoxicity and anti-inflammatory activities were performed using a model of LPS-stimulated microglia BV-2. Mutation detection and somatic recombination were performed in Drosophila melanogaster wing cells. The results showed that tryptophol-5-O-& beta;-D-glucopyranoside was not cytotoxic to BV-2 cells at the concentrations tested. The results also showed that this alkaloid inhibited by 75% the inflammatory response induced by LPS at the concentration of 189 & mu;M with IC50 = 12.07 & PLUSMN;0.35 & mu;M. The analysis of the MH offspring showed that different concentrations of the alkaloid did not induce statistically significant increases in the frequencies of mutant spots when compared to those observed in the negative control. With these results, we can conclude that tryptophol-5-O-& beta;-D-glucopyranoside presents therapeutic potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases with no mutagenic effects.