PAGE - a simple method to detect the protective effects of medicinal plants against sugar induced protein damage

This study reports a new application of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), by which the medicinal plants that protect proteins from sugar induced damage can be recognised. Diabetes mellitus affects hundreds of million people worldwide. Over five million deaths occurred in 2013 due to complications associated with diabetes. One of the key mechanisms causing long term complications of diabetes is initiated by the attachment of glucose to proteins in the body and this process is known as protein glycation (Goh & Cooper, 2008). Increase in the blood glucose level is a characteristic feature of poorly controlled diabetes. This creates an environment highly favourable to increasing protein damage caused by glycation. In the body, protein glycation continues to progress over a period of time (weeks to months) finally producing a complex group of compounds, which causes more damage to the proteins. Effects of the damage become more prominent in proteins such as collagen, which has longer life. These damaged proteins accumulate in various organs leading to long term diabetic complications. Protein damage caused by glycation affects the blood vessels and various organs such as the heart, kidney and eye leading to myocardial infarction (heart attack), stroke, kidney failure and blindness.