Abstract

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Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is still contributing significantly in morbidities and mortalities in the world today, more especially in developing countries. The drugs normally use to treat the infection are costly, toxic, and less effective due to resistance by HIV. In view of that an assessment of gp120-CD4 binding inhibition potential of Solanum nigrum crude fruit extracts was conducted between June–December, 2018 using gp120-CD4 capture ELISA kits. Aqueous, methanol, and petroleum ether extracts were prepared at 1000, 500 and 250 µg/ml and tested for gp120-CD4 binding inhibition. Sub-acute toxicity assay was done using albino rats; biochemical parameters including alanine amino transferase (ALT), aspartate amino transferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) as well as bilirubin for liver and urea, electrolytes and creatinine for kidney functions were evaluated. Kidneys, liver and lungs of the animals were examined for histopathological damages. The results of the effect of crude aqueous, methanol and petroleum ether extracts of Solanum nigrum fruit against gp120-CD4 showed inhibition ranging from 1.3-17 % with 1000 µg/ml showing highest percentage of inhibition. There was no significant difference (P = 0.861) in terms of percentage inhibition between the three concentrations tested. Methanol extract demonstrated the highest percentage inhibition of gp120-CD4 bindings (17 %). No significant difference (P = 0.123) between the three extracts against gp-120-CD4 bindings was observed. The results of the sub-acute toxicity study have shown that, there were no physical changes in animals treated with 500 mg/kg of all the extracts. The result of liver function test revealed that, ALT, AST and ALP were within the normal range (12U/L) for both the high and low concentrations of the extracts including the control. Also result for total protein, albumin, globulin and albumin globulin ratio for the test albino rats and that of the control rat were found to be within the normal range 5.2-9,3.5-5, 2.0 – 3.5 g/dl and 0.8 – 2.0 for total protein, albumin, globulin and globulin ratio respectively. For serum electrolyte level, sodium and potassium ions for the various concentrations of the extracts tested and control were also found to be within normal range. The result of kidney function test revealed that, urea, creatinine and direct and total bilirubin of the rats tested and control were all found to be within normal range. In addition, the histopathology images, shows no remarkable inflammation in all the organs studied. In conclusion, fruit extracts of Solanum nigrum possessed some levels of HIV-1 gp120-CD4 binding inhibition potentials and the extracts were found to be non-toxic at 250 and 500mg/ kg body weight. It can be recommended that, the bioactive compounds should therefore be isolated and tested for gp120-CD4 binding inhibition activity.

Keywords: gp120-CD4 binding inhibition, Solanum nigrum crude extracts, Sub-acute toxicity test