IN-VITRO ANTI-SICKLING POTENTIAL OF CATECHIN AND THE FUNCTIONAL CHEMISTRY AND METABOLIC PATHWAYS ANALYSIS OF HUMAN SICKLE ERYTHROCYTES

Sickle cell disease (SCD) treatment and management remain a challenging puzzle, especially among developing Nations. We evaluated catechin’s sickling-suppressive properties using in-vitro and bioinformatics approaches in human sickle erythrocytes. Sickling was maximally induced (76%) using 2% sodium metabisulfite (SMS) at 3h. Addition of catechin prevented the sickling by SMS at 1mM (81.19%) and reversed the same at 1mM (84.63%), with IC₅₀ values of 1.026µM and 1.103µM, respectively. Based on functional chemistry, catechin alters the functional groups of certain notable compounds within erythrocytes, favouring its anti-sickling effects, as indicated by the observed bends and shifts. From GC-MS and LC-MS analyses, it was observed that catechin treatment favours fatty acid alkyl monoesters (FAMEs) production with concomitant shutting down effects on selenocompound metabolism. Pathway enrichment and topology analyses revealed activation of fatty acid biosynthesis, linoleic acid metabolism and steroid hormone biosynthesis pathways upon catechin treatment. Thus, sickling-suppressive effects of catechin could potentially be associated with modulation of oxygenated and deoxygenated haemoglobin via alteration of human sickle erythrocytes’ functional chemistry and metabolic pathways implicated in SCD crisis.