Assessment of the inhibitory activity of hydroalcoholic extract from Anacardium occidentale L. leaves against Brugia malayi hexokinase, a promising target for the development of anti-filarial drug

Globally, lymphatic filariasis poses a hazard to 859 million people in 50 nations. Because of its severity, the majority of medications that are now on the market are microfilaricidal, meaning that they do not effectively kill the adult parasites, which continue to create microfilariae. Therefore, the present study aims to develop a plant-based macrofilaricidal drug. The inhibitory activity of various solvent extracts of leaves of Anacardium occidentale L. (Anacardiaceae) was tested against the recombinant hexokinase of B. malayi (BmHk). BmHK, an enzyme of the glycolytic pathway that plays a vital key in the replication/survival of filarial parasites and hence was chosen as a target. A preliminary phytochemical test and GC-FID analysis of the extract were carried out. The hydroalcoholic extract of A. occidentale showed the highest inhibition (65.80 ± 1.60%) of activity of BmHk, compared to other extracts, which showed less than 50% inhibition. The present study showed that the hydroalcoholic extract of A. occidentale has inhibitory activity against BmHk and can be explored further for developing the herbal-based anti-filarial drug.