Search results for "NATURAL-PRODUCTS"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
Characterization of the interaction of the antifungal and cytotoxic cyclic glycolipopeptide hassallidin with sterol-containing lipid membranes.
2019
Hassallidins are cyclic glycolipopeptides produced by cyanobacteria and other prokaryotes. The hassallidin structure consists of a peptide ring of eight amino acids where a fatty acid chain, additional amino acids, and sugar moieties are attached. Hassallidins show antifungal activity against several opportunistic human pathogenic fungi, but does not harbor antibacterial effects. However, they have not been studied on mammalian cells, and the mechanism of action is unknown. We purified hassallidin D from cultured cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. UHCC 0258 and characterized its effect on mammalian and fungal cells. Ultrastructural analysis showed that hassallidin D disrupts cell membranes, causin…
The essentials of marine biotechnology
2021
Coastal countries have traditionally relied on the existing marine resources (e.g., fishing, food, transport, recreation, and tourism) as well as tried to support new economic endeavors (ocean energy, desalination for water supply, and seabed mining). Modern societies and lifestyle resulted in an increased demand for dietary diversity, better health and well-being, new biomedicines, natural cosmeceuticals, environmental conservation, and sustainable energy sources. These societal needs stimulated the interest of researchers on the diverse and underexplored marine environments as promising and sustainable sources of biomolecules and biomass, and they are addressed by the emerging field of ma…
Characterization of sulfhydryl oxidase from Aspergillus tubingensis
2017
Background Despite of the presence of sulfhydryl oxidases (SOXs) in the secretomes of industrially relevant organisms and their many potential applications, only few of these enzymes have been biochemically characterized. In addition, basic functions of most of the SOX enzymes reported so far are not fully understood. In particular, the physiological role of secreted fungal SOXs is unclear. Results The recently identified SOX from Aspergillus tubingensis (AtSOX) was produced, purified and characterized in the present work. AtSOX had a pH optimum of 6.5, and showed a good pH stability retaining more than 80% of the initial activity in a pH range 4-8.5 within 20 h. More than 70% of the initia…
PLA2-mediated catalytic activation of its inhibitor 25-acetyl-petrosaspongiolide M: serendipitous identification of a new PLA2 suicide inhibitor.
2004
Abstract25-Acetyl-petrosaspongiolide M (PMAc) (1), a mild non-covalent PLA2 inhibitor, unexpectedly recovers, after incubation with bvPLA2, the ability to covalently modify the enzyme target. This study demonstrates the catalytic effect of bvPLA2 in converting 1 in its deacetylated congener petrosaspongiolide M (PM) (2), a strong covalent PLA2 inhibitor whose molecular mechanism of inhibition has already been clarified. Moreover, our findings outline the potential role of PMAc as anti-inflammatory pro-drug, by virtue of its ability of delivering the active PM agent at the site of inflammation, functioning as a suicide inhibitor.
Direct pathway cloning and expression of the radiosumin biosynthetic gene cluster
2023
Radiosumins are a structurally diverse family of low molecular weight natural products that are produced by cyanobacteria and exhibit potent serine protease inhibition. Members of this family are dipeptides characterized by the presence of two similar non-proteinogenic amino acids. Here we used a comparative bioinformatic analysis to identify radiosumin biosynthetic gene clusters from the genomes of 13 filamentous cyanobacteria. We used direct pathway cloning to capture and express the entire 16.8 kb radiosumin biosynthetic gene cluster from Dolichospermum planctonicum UHCC 0167 in Escherichia coli. Bioinformatic analysis demonstrates that radiosumins represent a new group of chorismate-der…