• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.32-34
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• 2005

Effect of isoliquiritigenin isolated from the heartwood of Dalbergia odorifera T. Chen (Leguminosae) on mushroom tyrosinase activity was investigated in vitro using L-tyrosine and L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) as the substrates. When L-tyrosine was used as a substrate, both isoliquiritigenin and kojic acid, a positive control, inhibited tyrosinase activity in a concentration-dependent manner. IC$_{50}$ values of isoliquiritigenin and kojic acid were 61.4 and 52.2 ${\muM}$, respectively. However, isoliquiritigenin showed week inhibitory effect on the oxidation of L-DOPA by tyrosinase with inhibition ratio of 9.1 ${\pm}$ 7.1% at 100 ${\muM}$. It is also suggested that 3-unsubstituted and 4-hydroxyl phenyl group in isoliquiritigenin plays an important role on the inhibition of tyrosinase activity when L-tyrosine was used as a substrate. Analysis of Lineweaver-Burk plot showed that isoliquiritigenin acts as a competitive inhibitor in case of L-tyrosine as a substrate.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.42-47
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• 2012

Soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) is a metabolic regulator of epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs). EETs have many beneficial effects, vasodilation, anti-diabetes, anti-inflammation, cardiovascular protection, renal protection. Therefore, selective sEH inhibitors have a potential for treating these diseases. In the present study, screening methods for sEH inhibitors using PHOME ((3-phenyl-oxiranyl)-acetic acid cyano-(6-methoxynaphthalen-2-yl)-methyl ester) and 14-15-EET as substrates were established. To determine selectivity, microsomal epoxide hydrolase (mEH) inhibition assay was also developed using styrene oxide as a substrate of microsomal epoxide hydrolase. Our results obtained from 12-[[(tricyclo[3.3.1.13,7]dec-1-ylamino)carbonyl]amino]-dodecanoic acid (AUDA) used as a positive sEH inhibitor and valpromide used as a positive mEH inhibitor showed that these methods are useful for discovery of drug candidates.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.148-156
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• 1993

Kinetic parameters of purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae were measured. The Michaelis constants determined for substrates of the enzyme were $ 2.0 * 10^{-4}$ M for inosine, $2.0 *10^{-3}$ M for deoxyinosine, $ 2.0 * 10^{-5}$ M for guanosine and $2.0 10 ^{-5}$ M for deoxyguanosine. According to the ratio of relative $K_{cat}$Km, substrate specificity of each nucleoside was in the order of guanosine or deoxyguanosine, inosine and deoxyinosine. Cosubstrate, phosphate, revealed downward curvature in Lineweaver-Burk plot at high concentrations, indicating a negative cooperativity between subunits. The inhibition constants for purine analogs were measured to be $ 6 * 10^{-4}$ M for formycin B as the competitive inhibitor of inosine, $ 9 * 10^{-6}$ M for guanine as the competitive inhibitor of guanosine, $2 * 10^{-4}$ M for hypoxanthine as the non competitive inhibitor of guanosine and $4.5 * 10 ^{-4}$ M for 6-mercaptopurine as the non competitive inhibitor of guanosine. Alternative substrates, guanosine, deoxyguanosine and adenosine were found to act as competitive inhibitors with Ki values o $f^ 2.0 * 10 {-5}$ M, $2.6 * 10^{-5}$ M and $8.5 * 10 ^{-4}$ M, respectively, when inosine was the variable substrate. Guanosine and deoxyguanosine were also observed as competitive inhibitors with the Ki values of $1.8 * 10^{-5}$ M and $ 3.0 * 10^{-5}$ M, respectively, when deoxyinesine was the variable substrate. The results of alternative substrate sstudies suggested that a single enzyme acted on different nucleosides, inosine, deoxyinosine, adenosine, guanosine and deoxyguanosine.e.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.727-731
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• 2005

Synthesized Ile-Ala-Val-Pro (IAVP) peptide, which has the highest hypocholesterolemic effect among a number of synthesized derivatives of Ile-Ala-Val-Pro-Gly-Glu-Val-Ala (IAVPGEVA) isolated from 11S globulin of soy protein by pepsin digestion, was selected for investigation in the present study. Using a recombinant Syrian hamster 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMGR), we studied in detail the inhibition of this enzyme by IAVP and compared the action of this peptide to that of lovastatin, a known competitive inhibitor of this enzyme. The concentration of IAVP required for 50% inhibition ($IC_{50}$) of HMGR activity in given experimental conditions was $340\;{\mu}M$. Kinetic analysis revealed that the studied peptide is a competitive inhibitor of HMGR with respect to both 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), with an equilibrium constant of inhibitor binding ($K_i\;=\;[E][I]/[EI]$) of $61{\pm}1.2\;{\mu}M$ and $157{\pm}4.4\;{\mu}M$, respectively. At the same conditions, $K_i$ and $IC_{50}$ for lovastatin were $2.2{\pm}0.1\;nM$ and 12.5 nM, respectively. Thus, the given peptide interacts with HMGR as a bisubstrate, consequently blocking access of both substrates to the active sites. The achieved results suggest the design of new peptide sequences having a higher relative affinity to binding sites of this enzyme and an enhancement of their hypocholesterolemic properties.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.445-450
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• 2011

Preciously, we demonstrated that a novel NHE-1 inhibitor, KR-33028 attenuated cortical neuronal apoptosis induced by glutamate. In the present study, we investigated the signaling mechanism of neuroprotective effect of KR-33028 against glutamate-induced neuronal apoptosis, especially focusing on mitochondrial death pathway. Our data showed that glutamate induces a biphasic rise in mitochondrial $Ca^{2+}$ and that KR-33028 significantly prevents the second phase increase, but not the first phase increase in mitochondrial $Ca^{2+}$. Furthermore, KR-33028 restored the ${\Delta}{\Psi}_m$ dissipation and cytochrome c release into cytoplasm induced by glutamate in a concentration-dependent manner. The inhibition of mitochondrial $Ca^{2+}$ overload by ruthenium red also inhibited glutamate-induced apoptotic cell death, mitochondrial membrane potential, ${\Delta}{\Psi}_m$ dissipation and cytochrome c release. These data suggest that inhibition of mitochondrial $Ca^{2+}$ overload is likely to be attributable to anti-apoptotic effect of KR-33028. Taken together, our results suggest that anti-apoptotic effects of NHE-1 inhibitor, KR-33028 may be mediated through maintenance of mitochondrial function.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.1053-1056
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• 2011

Optimal conditions for a high cell density fermentation were investigated in a recombinant Escherichia coli producing salmosin, a platelet aggregation inhibitor. The optimized carbon and nitrogen sources were glycerol 10 g/l, yeast extract 30 g/l, and bacto-tryptone 10 g/l, yielding the dry cell weight (DCW) of 10.61 g/l in a 500 ml flask culture. The late-stage induction with 1% L-arabinose in a 5 l jar fermentor showed the highest DCW of 65.70 g/l after 27 h of the fed-batch fermentation. Around 2,200 mg/l of the protein was expressed as an inclusion body that was then refolded to obtain the active salmosin of 96 mg/l. We also confirmed the inhibitory activity against platelet aggregation of the active salmosin from the high cell density fermentation.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.675-680
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• 2002

In order to investigate the underlying mechanism of HCI in oesophagitis, the inflammatory response to HCI was observed in RBL-2H3 mast cells. Rat basophilic leukemia (RBL-2H3) cells were used to measure histamine release, arachidonic acid (AA) release, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and peroxynitrite generation induced by HCI. Exogenous HCl increased the level of histamine release and ROS generation in a dose dependent manner, whereas it decreased the spontaneous release of [$^3$H] M and the spontaneous production of peroxynitrite. Mepacrine (10 $\mu$M), oleyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (10 $\mu$M) and bromoenol lactone (10 $\mu$M) did not affect both the level of histamine release and ROS generation induced by HCI. U73122 (1 $\mu$M), a specific phospholipase C (PLC) inhibitor did not have any influence on level of histamine release and ROS generation. Propranolol (200 $\mu$M), a phospholipase D (PLD) inhibitor, and neomycin (1 mM), a nonspecific PLC and PLD inhibitor, significantly inhibited both histamine release and ROS generation. Diphenyleneiodonium (10 $\mu$M), a NADPH oxidase inhibitor, and tiron (5 mM), an intracellular ROS scavenger significantly inhibited the HCI-induced histamine release and ROS generation. These findings suggest that the inflammatory responses to HCI is related to histamine release and ROS generation, and that the ROS generation by HCI may be involved in histamine release via the PLD pathway in RBL-2H3 cells.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.11
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• pp.606-611
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• 2023

The main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 cleaves 11 sites of viral polypeptide chains and generates essential non-structural proteins for viral replication. Mpro is an important drug target against COVID-19. In this study, we developed a real-time fluorometric turn-on assay system to evaluate Mpro proteolytic activity for a substrate peptide between NSP4 and NSP5. It produced reproducible and reliable results suitable for HTS inhibitor assays. Thus far, most inhibitors against Mpro target the active site for substrate binding. Mpro exists as a dimer, which is essential for its activity. We investigated the potential of the Mpro dimer interface to act as a drug target. The dimer interface is formed of domain II and domain III of each protomer, in which N-terminal ten amino acids of the domain I are bound in the middle as a sandwich. The N-terminal part provides approximately 39% of the dimer interface between two protomers. In the real-time fluorometric turn-on assay system, peptides of the N-terminal ten amino acids, N10, can inhibit the Mpro activity. The dimer interface could be a prospective drug target against Mpro. The N-terminal sequence can help develop a potential inhibitor.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.519-526
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• 2020

Methamphetamine (MA) is one of the most commonly abused drugs in the world by illegal drug users. Addiction to MA is a serious public health problem and effective therapies do not exist to date. It has also been reported that behavior induced by psychostimulants such as MA is related to histone deacetylase (HDAC). MeBib is an HDAC6 inhibitor derived from a benzimidazole scaffold. Many benzimidazole-containing compounds exhibit a wide range of pharmacological activity. In this study, we investigated whether HDAC6 inhibitor MeBib modulates the behavioral response in MA self-administered rats. Our results demonstrated that the number of active lever presses in MA self-administered rats was reduced by pretreatment with MeBib. In the hippocampus of rats, we also found MA administration promotes GluN2B, an NMDA receptor subunit, expression, which results in sequential activation of ERK/CREB/BDNF pathway, however, MeBib abrogated it. Collectively, we suggest that MeBib prevents the MA seeking response induced by MA administration and therefore, represents a potent candidate as an MA addiction inhibitor.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.641-646
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• 1995

During the screening of inhibitors of melanin biosynthesis from microbial secondary metabolites, a fungal strain MR304 which was capable of producing high level of an inhibitor was selected. Based on taxonomic studies, this fungus could be classified as Trichoderma harzianum. The active compound (MR304-1) was purified from culture broth by Diaion HP-20 column chromatography, ethylacetate extraction, Sephadex LH-20 column chromatographv and HPLC. The inhibitor was identified as 3-(1,5-dihvdroxy-3-isocyanocyclopent-(E)-3-envl)prop-2-enoate by spectroscopic methods of UV, ESIMS, $^{1}$H-NMR, $^{13}$C-NMR, NOE, HMQC and HMBC. MR304-1 showed strong mushroom tyrosinase inhibitory activity with IC$_{50}$ value of 0.25 $\mu $g/ml. It inhibited melanin biosynthesis with 15 mm inhibition zone at 30 $\mu $g/paper disc in Streptomyces bikiniensis, a bacterium used as an indicator organism in this work. It also inhibited melanin biosynthesis in B16 melanoma cells with a niinimum inhibitory concentration of 0.05 $\mu $g/ml.