Abstract:
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus is one of the common metabolic disorder which is
characterized by abnormal blood sugar level due to impaired insulin secretion or
impaired insulin action or both. Metformin is most commonly used drug for the
treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus but due to its slow mode of action and various
side effects it shows poor and slow therapeutic response in patients. Currently, scientists
are trying to tackle these limitations by developing nanomedicines. These nanoparticles
based medicines are usually synthesized using biological sources due to low
cytotoxicity. Among these silver nanoparticles are gaining more importance in current
era due to their strong antidiabetic properties along with antioxidant, antibacterial
potential. The current study was conducted to examine the antidiabetic effect of silver
nanoparticles using aqueous leaf extract of Thymus serpyllum. Furthermore, to
characterize these nanoparticles FTIR, XRD and SEM were used. The alpha amylase
inhibition and antioxidant activity were checked through α amylase and DPPH radical
scavenging assay respectively. To check the effect of silver nanoparticles on blood
glucose levels FBG, IPGTT, ITT tests were employed on STZ induced BALB/c mice.
To assess the morphological changes in the anatomy of liver, pancreas and kidney of
BALB/c mice due to silver nanoparticles, histological analysis was done through H&E
staining system. Finally, AMPK and IRS1 genes expression analysis was carried out
via real time PCR. Silver nanoparticles were found to be spherical in shape with an
average size of 42nm. They showed an IC50 of 8 µg/ml and 10 µg/ml for α amylase
and DPPH assay respectively. Our study suggests that silver nanoparticles specifically
10mg/kg causes significant increase in expression of AMPK & IRS1 which ultimately
increase the glucose uptake in cells. Thus, Thymus serpyllum mediated silver
nanoparticles possess the potential to cure Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
