Nontoxic natural products useful in skin care cosmetics are of considerable interest. Tyrosinase is a rate-limiting enzyme for which its inhibitor is useful in developing whitening cosmetics. Pyracantha koidzumii (Hayata) Rehder is an endemic species in Taiwan that exhibits tyrosinase-inhibitory activity. To find new active natural compounds from P. koidzumii, we performed bioguided isolation a...

Tentoxin, a natural cyclic tetrapeptide produced by phytopathogenic fungi from the Alternaria species affects the catalytic function of the chloroplast F(1)-ATPase in certain sensitive species of plants. In this study, we show that the uncompetitive inhibitor tentoxin binds to the alphabeta-interface of the chloroplast F(1)-ATPase in a cleft localized at betaAsp-83. Most of the binding site is ...

Conformational changes acutely control protein kinase C (PKC). We have previously shown that the autoinhibitory pseudosubstrate must be removed from the active site in order for 1) PKC to be phosphorylated by its upstream kinase phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 (PDK-1), 2) the mature enzyme to bind and phosphorylate substrates, and 3) the mature enzyme to be dephosphorylated by phosphatases....

The equity of a drug target is principally evaluated by its genetic vulnerability with tools ranging from antisense- and microRNA-driven knockdowns to induced expression of the target protein. In order to upgrade the process of antibacterial target identification and discern its most effective type of inhibition, an in silico toolbox that evaluates its genetic and chemical vulnerability leading...

A steady-state kinetic analysis has been performed on the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex from pea (Pisum sativum L.) mitochondria and castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) proplastids. Substrate interaction kinetics for all substrates gave parallel lines consistent with a multisite ping-pong mechanism. Product inhibition studies showed uncompetitive inhibition between acetyl-CoA and pyruvate and co...

Expression of -glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) in tumors contributes to resistance to radiation and chemotherapy. GGT is inhibited by glutamine analogues that compete with the substrate for the -glutamyl binding site. However, the glutamine analogues that have been evaluated in clinical trials are too toxic for use in humans. We have used high throughput screening to evaluate small molecules for ...

myo-Inositol-1-phosphatase has been partially purified from bovine brain. The enzyme has a molecular weight of about 58,000. Both L-myo-inositol 1-phosphate and D-myo-inositol 1-phosphate are hydrolyzed by the enzyme as well as (-)-chiro-inositol 3-phosphate and 2'-AMP. Triphosphoinositide is not a substrate. The phosphatase is completely dependent on Mg2+, which has a Km of 1 mM. Calcium and m...

The inhibition of Escherichia coli isocitrate dehydrogenase by glyoxylate and oxaloacetate was examined. The shapes of the progress curves in the presence of the inhibitors depended on the order of addition of the assay components. When isocitrate dehydrogenase or NADP+ was added last, the rate slowly decreased until a new, inhibited, steady state was obtained. When isocitrate was added last, t...

p300/CBP-associated factor (PCAF) is a histone acetyltransferase that plays an important role in the remodeling of chromatin and the regulation of gene expression. It has been shown to catalyze preferentially acetylation of the epsilon-amino group of lysine 14 in histone H3. In this study, the kinetic mechanism of PCAF was evaluated with a 20-amino acid peptide substrate derived from the amino ...