Phytochemical analysis, molecular docking, in vitro cytotoxicity, enzyme inhibition and antioxidant activity of Viscum album subsp. austriacum in Turkey

Viscum album L. (mistletoe) is known to have important medicinal properties despite being a semi-parasitic plant living in trees. The plant is widely described as effective in treating diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, inflammation, and cancer thanks to its important bioactive components. In our study, the cytotoxic effects of methanol extract obtained from V. album subsp. austriacum (VAA) on human colon (Caco-2), human embryonic kidney (HEK293), and human prostate cancer (LNCaP) cells were investigated. Also, the phytochemical content (LC-ESI-MS/MS), antioxidant (ABTS˙+, DPPH˙), enzyme inhibitory (α-amylase and α-glucosidase) properties of the extract were investigated. Moreover, the inhibitory property of the main component molecule against human androgen receptor and the sodium-glucose transporter (SGLT) protein was calculated theoretically by molecular docking. Additionally, the stability of the complex was studied by performing molecular dynamic (MD) simulations and this was confirmed by calculating the binding energy with MM/PBSA. The LC-ESI-MS/MS results showed that chlorogenic acid (155.681 μg/100 g) was detected at high concentrations in the plant extract. Although the extract exhibited lower activity than the standards in ABTS˙⁺, DPPH˙ results, it displayed higher activity against α-glucosidase and α-amylase. Besides this, chlorogenic acid and the SGLT protein were found to have a high binding energy (8.20 kcal/mol) in their interactions. Also, the MTT cell viability test showed a cytotoxic effect against LNCaP (EC₅₀: 53.075 μg/mL) and Caco-2 (EC₅₀: 68.88 μg/mL) cell lines. According to the MD result, chlorogenic acid was more stable and had a higher binding energy (−40.69 kcal/mol) towards the human androgen receptor. The data shows that V. album exhibits antioxidant, antidiabetic, and anticancer activities.