Role of Ricin in Platelet Aggregation

Sumasridhar¹ and L. M. S. Rudrammaji²

¹Department of Bio-chemistry, Dayananda Sagar College of Dental Sciences, Kumarswamy layout, Bangalore - 560 078 India.

²Pretoria, South Africa.

ABSTRACT: Ricin is a Ribosome Inactivating Protein from the seeds of Ricinus communis. The long time interest in this protein is due to the wide medical and therapeutical applications. It acts as a cytotoxic protein which has implications in cancer therapy. In this study we have established the role of ricin as an inhibitor of platelet aggregation. Platelet aggregation studies were done by turbidometric method and platelet inducing factors like ADP and collagen were used. Increasing concentrations of ricin were used on ADP induced and collagen induced platelets separately, to understand the role of ricin in platelet aggregation. Maximum inhibition was seen at 25μg/ml concentration of ricin.

KEYWORDS: Ricin; ADP; collagen; ribosome-inactivating protein

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