The lecithin safety in the nutrition for the diabetes mellitus prevention

Abstract

It is known that lecithin helps normalize blood glucose levels; in cases of type 1 diabetes, it may even reduce the need for insulin and alleviate certain clinical symptoms of the disease. Sometimes lecithin deficiency occurs in patients with diabetes. There is no data on the mechanism by which lecithin affects glucose uptake by the body's cells. Phospholipids are components of cell membranes. Al could improve a number of stages in the development of functional foods, particularly at the initial and intermediate stages of the 17-step functional food development model developed by the Functional Food Center. Molecular docking should be used to evaluate the role of lecithin in insulin metabolism. It helps to estimate the molecular mechanisms underlying insulin penetration into cells and the increase in insulin receptor activity induced by lecithin phospholipids. It is also important to investigate the nutritional value, preventive properties, and safety of lecithin-containing foods in laboratory animals in the preclinical experiment to confirm the advisability of including lecithin in the diet of people with diabetes. Context and purpose of this study: Practical and theoretical justification of the using of lecithin – short supply biologically active substance – in design of food product formulations. Objective of this study: To investigate the role of lecithin phospholipids in insulin metabolism by modeling the molecular mechanisms of insulin interaction with its receptor and associated signaling proteins using computational chemistry methods, and to evaluate the biological efficacy of lecithin-enriched food products in an experimental model of alloxan-induced diabetes through the assessment of blood glucose, cholesterol, and lipid levels. Methods: Structure and property study of the biologically active supplement and components involved in insulin cell absorption was provided using Hyper Chem v. 8.01. AutoDock, Hexv. 6.3, v.8.0.0 was used to model intermolecular interactions. Online Protein Data Bank (PDB) was used to study geometrically optimized structures of insulin and its receptor molecules. Experimental product samples were evaluated for biological value and safety using laboratory animals – white rats weighing 180–250 g. Concentrations of glucose, lipids, and cholesterol in the laboratory animal blood were calculated on the biochemical automatic analyzer Cobas c 111 (Roche Diagnostics, Switzerland). Software programs Statistica Neural Networks v.4 and Statistica v.12 were used to analyze the result reliability and for forecasting. Data are expressed as mean ± standard error of the mean. Research results were analyzed using the "Error per case" module of the Statistical Neural Networks v.4.1 application. The reliability of the result obtained was assessed taking into account the significance level (q), which did not exceed 0.05 in any of the experiments. Results: Insulin penetration processing in a living cell via insulin receptor was modeled by means of computational chemistry. The role of lecithin in insulin receptor activation is demonstrated. Evaluation of the biological value and preventive properties of experimental product samples (with lecithin) and control sausage samples was made using laboratory animals (white rats), including those with alloxan-induced diabetes. The efficiency of lecithin in normalizing blood glucose levels (6,530,45 mmol/L), reducing cholesterol (2,800,37 mmol/L) and lipid (4,590,40 g/L) levels has been confirmed. Conclusion: This research integrated molecular docking and an experimental study of the influence of a lecithin-containing product on laboratory animal metabolism and demonstrated the efficacy of lecithin as a biologically active additive. It is advisable to conduct further studies on the effects of a lecithin-containing diet involving volunteers diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus.