Screening of dietary nucleotides from natural sources for therapeutic uses

Dietary nucleosides and nucleotides perform a range of functions in our body. They play important role in the maintenance of mitochondrial function, differentiation of hematopoietic cells, strengthen the immune system, helps in small intestine growth and development, lipid metabolism etc. External supplementation of dietary nucleotides is a good regimen against mitochondrial dysfunction caused by Nucleosides Reverse Transcriptase Inhibiters (NRTI) drug therapy; it has a long history of use for cancer and viral diseases e.g., NucleomaxX is a dietary nucleotide supplement, and has a potential use in the treatment of mitochondrial toxicity as it contains Mitocnol; a sugarcane extract with a high percentage of nucleotides. Therefore, analysis of these compounds in food materials is very important for improving and assuring food quality as well as to boost Biotech Industrial sector of India; manufacturing a dietary nucleotide supplement. During the present investigation, the extraction protocol for nucleotides from different sources (sugarcane, pulses/lentils, oilseeds, yeast, mushroom and animal milks) was standardized, which is one of the simple, cost effective method for isolation of total nucleotides/nucleosides. The isolated nucleic acid was quantified using double beam UV spectrophotometer. Estimation of RNA was carried out by Orcinol method and DNA by Diphenylamine method, using nucleic acid extract obtained from different food materials. The screening of samples from different sources helped to determine the desirable concentration of nucleic acid in natural sources for dietary nucleotides. Further, investigation is in progress to study influence on animal model, developing therapeutic formulation and scale up criteria.