Antioxidant activity and angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibition by enzymatic hydrolysates from bee bread.

Enzymatic hydrolysates were prepared from bee bread using three proteases. The antioxidant properties of these hydrolysates were measured using four different methods. These had remarkable antioxidant activity similar or superior to that of 1 mM alpha-tocopherol. They also had high scavenging activities against active oxygen species as the superoxide anion radical and hydroxyl radicals. Moreover, they showed angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitory activities and the activities were similar to those from various fermented foods such as fish sauce, sake, vinegar, cheese, miso, and natto. The present studies reveal that enzymatic hydrolysates from bee bread are of benefit not only for the materials of health food diets, but also for in patients undergoing various diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and hypertension.

Natural products inhibiting Candida albicans secreted aspartic proteases from Tovomita krukovii.

Assay-guided fractionation of the ethanol extract of Tovomita krukovii resulted in the identification of four new xanthones (1 - 4) and ten known compounds (5 - 14). The structures of compounds 1 - 14 were determined by spectral data to be 3,5-dihydroxy-4-methoxyxanthone (1), 1,3,5,7-tetrahydroxy-8-isoprenylxanthone (2), 1,3,5-trihydroxy-8-isoprenylxanthone (3), 1,5,7-trihydroxy-8-isoprenylxanthone (4), 1,3,7-trihydroxy-2-isoprenylxanthone (5), 1,5-dihydroxyxanthone (6), 1,6-dihydroxy-5-methoxyxanthone (7), 1,3,5-trihydroxyxanthone (8), 1,3,6-trihydroxy-5-methoxyxanthone (9), 1,6-dihydroxy-3,5-dimethoxyxanthone (10), 1,3,7-trihydroxyxanthone (11), 3-geranyl-2,4,6-trihydroxybenzophenone (12), betulinic acid (13), and 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (14). Compounds 2, 3, 12 and 13 showed inhibitory effects against Candida albicans secreted aspartic proteases (SAP) with IC50 values of 15 microg/ml, 25 microg/ml, 40 microg/ml, and 6.5 microg/ml, respectively, while the other compounds were inactive. In addition, compound 12 showed activity against C. albicans, C. neoformans, S. aureus and methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRS).

Prophylactic and curative effects of Bacopa monniera in gastric ulcer models.

Bacopa monniera Wettst. (BM, syn. Herpestis monniera L; Scrophulariaceae), is an Ayurvedic drug used as a rasayana. Its fresh juice was earlier reported to have significant antiulcerogenic activity. In continuation, methanolic extract of BM (BME) standardized to bacoside-A content (percentage-38.0 +/- 0.9), when given in the dose of 10-50 mg/kg, twice daily for 5 days, showed dose-dependent anti-ulcerogenic on various gastric ulcer models induced by ethanol, aspirin, 2 h cold restraint stress and 4 h pylorus ligation. BME in the dose of 20 mg/kg, given for 10 days, twice daily showed healing effects against 50% acetic acid-induced gastric ulcers. Further work was done to investigate the possible mechanisms of its action by studying its effect on various mucosal offensive acid-pepsin secretion and defensive factors like mucin secretion, mucosal cell shedding, cell proliferation and antioxidant activity in rats. BME 20 mg/kg showed no effect on acid-pepsin secretion, increased mucin secretion, while it decreased cell shedding with no effect on cell proliferation. BME showed significant antioxidant effect per se and in stressed animals. Thus, the gastric prophylactic and curative effects of BME may be due to its predominant effect on mucosal defensive factors.

Peptides derived from HIV-1 Vif: a non-substrate based novel type of HIV-1 protease inhibitors.

The retroviral protease (PR) is absolutely essential for completion of human immunodeficiency virus multiplication cycle, and cannot be replaced by any cellular function. Thus PR, like reverse transcriptase, is an ideal target for the development of anti-AIDS therapy. A large number of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) PR inhibitors have been developed, and several are currently used as anti-AIDS drugs. These inhibitors are mainly based on the natural PR cleavage sites within the viral Gag and Gag-Pol precursors. The major difficulty encountered while using anti-HIV therapeutic agents in patients has been the rapid emergence of drug-resistant viral strains. Most of the mutations which convert the PR into inhibitor-resistant are located within the substrate binding subsites of the enzyme. Recently, it has been shown that the HIV-1 auxiliary protein Vif, and especially the N-terminal half of Vif (N'-Vif) specifically interacts with the viral PR and inhibits its activity. We now show that efficient inhibition of HIV-1 PR activity can be achieved using Vif-derived peptides. Based on the above model we have performed peptide mapping of N'-Vif in order to find a small peptidic lead compound which inhibits PR activity. The screening revealed that peptides derived from two regions in Vif spanning from residues 30-65 and 78-98 inhibit PR activity in vitro, specifically bind HIV-PR and inhibit HIV-1 production in vivo. Further mapping of these regions revealed the lead compounds Vif81-88 and Vif88-98. These peptides specifically inhibit and bind HIV-1 PR, but do not affect pepsin and rous sarcoma virus protease. In contrast to other known PR inhibitors, these peptides are not substrate-based and their sequences do not resemble the sequences of the natural PR substrates (cleavage sites). Moreover, the Vif-derived peptides themselves are not cleaved by HIV-1 PR. Conversion of the lead peptides into small backbone cyclic peptidomimetics is taking place nowadays in order to turn these lead compounds into metabolically stable selective novel type of HIV-PR non-substrate-based inhibitors.