Bufadienolides from Kalanchoe daigremontiana as thrombin inhibitors-In vitro and in silico study

Thrombin is an active plasma coagulation factor II, critical for the formation of fibrin clot during blood coagulation. For that reason, this protein is also a crucial target for different anti-thrombotic therapies. The work is based on in vitro evaluation of the inhibitory effect of bufadienolide-rich fraction, isolated from roots of Kalanchoe daigremontiana (1-50μg/ml) on enzymatic properties of a serine proteinase - thrombin. The efficacy of the inhibition of amidolytic activity of thrombin (measured as a hydrolysis of the chromogenic substrate S-2238, Chromogenix) attained about 10 and 66%, respectively. The IC₅₀, established for the examined bufadienolide fraction was 2.79μg/ml, while the IC₅₀ calculated for argatroban (reference compound) was 0.78μg/ml. Linearization conducted using Lineweaver-Burk plot indicated that the K. daigremontiana fraction contains compounds that are uncompetitive inhibitors of thrombin. K. daigremontiana fraction was also able to reduce the proteolytic activity of thrombin towards its physiological substrate, i.e. fibrinogen. Additionally, this study is supported by in silico analysis of interactions of the most common compounds, identified in the examined in Kalanchoe extract to crystal structure of this enzyme.