RESUMEN
Urease-producing bacteria (especially Proteus mirabilis) can cause infection kidney stone. However, recent studies have shown that intact viable non-urease-producing bacteria such as Escherichia coli might also promote calcium oxalate (CaOx) kidney stone formation but with unclear mechanism. We thus hypothesized that some relevant bacterial components might be responsible for such promoting effects of the intact viable E. coli. Flagella, capsule, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) were isolated/purified and their stone modulatory activities were evaluated using CaOx crystallization, crystal growth, and crystal aggregation assays. Among these, flagella had the most potent promoting effects on CaOx crystallization, crystal growth, and crystal aggregation. Validation was performed by deflagellation demonstrating that the deflagellated intact viable E. coli had markedly reduced CaOx crystal modulatory activities in all aspects (comparable to those of the negative controls). Similarly, neutralization of the isolated/purified flagella using a specific anti-flagellin antibody, not an isotype control, could abolish the promoting effects of flagella. These findings provide direct evidence indicating that flagellum is responsible for the promoting effects of the viable E. coli on CaOx crystallization, crystal growth and aggregation.
RESUMEN
A data set of 1-adamantylthiopyridine analogs (1-19) with antioxidant activity, comprising of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities, was used for constructing quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models. Molecular structures were geometrically optimized at B3LYP/6-31g(d) level and subjected for further molecular descriptor calculation using Dragon software. Multiple linear regression (MLR) was employed for the development of QSAR models using 3 significant descriptors (i.e. Mor29e, F04[N-N] and GATS5v) for predicting the DPPH activity and 2 essential descriptors (i.e. EEig06r and Mor06v) for predicting the SOD activity. Such molecular descriptors accounted for the effects and positions of substituent groups (R) on the 1-adamantylthiopyridine ring. The results showed that high atomic electronegativity of polar substituent group (R = CO2H) afforded high DPPH activity, while substituent with high atomic van der Waals volumes such as R = Br gave high SOD activity. Leave-one-out cross-validation (LOO-CV) and external test set were used for model validation. Correlation coefficient (QCV) and root mean squared error (RMSECV) of the LOO-CV set for predicting DPPH activity were 0.5784 and 8.3440, respectively, while QExt and RMSEExt of external test set corresponded to 0.7353 and 4.2721, respectively. Furthermore, QCV and RMSECV values of the LOO-CV set for predicting SOD activity were 0.7549 and 5.6380, respectively. The QSAR model's equation was then used in predicting the SOD activity of tested compounds and these were subsequently verified experimentally. It was observed that the experimental activity was more potent than the predicted activity. Structure-activity relationships of significant descriptors governing antioxidant activity are also discussed. The QSAR models investigated herein are anticipated to be useful in the rational design and development of novel compounds with antioxidant activity.
