Identification of the thistle milk component Silibinin(A) and Glutathione-disulphide as potential inhibitors of the pancreatic lipase: Potential implications on weight loss

Abstract Peripheral targets like pancreatic-lipase appear to be the most suitable pharmacological alternative for obesity, as with orlistat, although its adverse effects limit its use. Therefore, the aim of this work was to identify new natural compounds able to inhibit pancreatic-lipase in an in vitro model. The DrugBank database was used to perform docking calculations. The best fitting-score compounds were further evaluated in vitro. Our data revealed that glutathione-disulphide (GSSG) and silibinin(A) inhibit pancreatic-lipase. This was confirmed by measuring hydrolysis in an emulsion model, obtaining that the suppression of lipid digestion by silibinin(A) was higher than that of GSSG and close to the effect of orlistat. Combined analysis established the existence of different inhibition mechanisms for each compound. In summary, silibinin(A) and GSSG inhibited pancreatic-lipase and, therefore, may be served as promise natural compounds to face with obesity. Further studies comprise the next step to fully validate the suitability of these compounds.