Dalal Aladwani
Biography
Dalal G.H. Al-Adwani is a dedicated Teacher Assistant at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Kuwait University. She actively supports student learning through laboratory instruction, grading, and the development of active learning tools. With a Master?s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and a Bachelor's in Pharmacy, she brings both academic and practical expertise from prior roles as a hospital and private pharmacist. She is also engaged in research collaboration with senior faculty and has received national academic honors, including the prestigious Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah Award for being among the top graduates in Kuwait.
Research Interest
Abstract
Ginkgo biloba is a native Chinese plant and is known to contain flavonoids and terpene trilactones. Its extract (GBE) was documented to have neuroprotective effects on many neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.
Ginkgo biloba leaves extraction, the bioactivity-guided fractionation protocol to produce eleven fractions with different polarities and constituents. The intermediate polar fraction was shown to be terpene trilactones-enriched fraction (TEGBE), where pure ginkgolide B (G-B) was further purified. This protocol was guided by the neuroprotective effect evaluation, where the effects of GBE and TEGBE were evaluated in comparison to that of the pure G-B in the crush sciatic nerve injury rat model. The fractionation protocol and the purification of G-B were accomplished using vacuum liquid chromatography and preparative HPLC techniques. Pure G-B was identified based on its spectral data. To evaluate the neuroprotective effects, sixty Wistar male rats were randomly allocated into 6 groups: naive (n=6), sham (n=12), crush + normal saline (n=12), crush + GBE (n=6, 50 mg/kg, i.p.), crush + TEGBE (n=12, 50 mg/kg, i.p.), and crush + G-B (n=12, 10 mg/kg i.p.). Treatments were given one hour following injury, and once daily for 14 days. Neurobehavioral tests, histomorphological examinations, and immunohistochemistry analysis of sciatic nerve and spinal cord were performed at weeks 3 and 6 post-injury.
GBE, TEGBE and G-B were shown to enhance functional and sensory behavioral parameters and to protect the histological and the ultrastructural elements in the sciatic nerve. Additionally, all treatments prevented spinal cord neurons from further deterioration following sciatic nerve injury. It was shown that G-B has the most significant potential effects among all treatments, nearly comparable to sham and naive values.
Bioactivity-guided fractionation afforded several fractions including TEGBE and pure G-B. GBE, TEGBE and G-B exhibit neurotherapeutic effects in the crush sciatic nerve injury model, where G-B showed the most neuroprotective outcome compared to other constituents. This study paves the way for more in-depth analysis of the mechanisms through which Ginkgo biloba constituents exert nerve regeneration and neuronal protection activities.
