Angiotensin I‐converting enzyme inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities of peptides prepared from tuna cooking juice and spleen proteases

Tuna cooking juice is a by‐product from the tuna canning industry. In this study, tuna cooking juice was hydrolysed by proteases extracted from the spleen. Tuna cooking juice showed the highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities after hydrolysis for 270 and 180 min, respectively. The hydrolysate was further fractionated by ultrafiltration. The permeate exhibited highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities when passed through 1 and 5 kDa cut‐off membranes, respectively. Gel filtration chromatography was used to determine the MW of bioactive peptides that exhibited highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities. Those peptides that exhibited highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities were the MW range of 238–829 Da and 1355–1880 Da, respectively. These results suggest that the tuna cooking juice and the spleen protease extract are a potential source of bioactive peptides that can be utilised as bioactive ingredients in functional food and nutraceuticals.     

Working memory in mild Alzheimer's disease and early Parkinson's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) impair working memory (WM). It is unclear, however, whether the deficits seen early in the course of these diseases are similar. To address this issue, the authors compared the performance of 22 patients with mild AD, 20 patients with early PD and without dementia, and 112 control participants on tests of inhibition, short-term memory, and 2 commonly administered tests of WM. The results suggest that although mild AD and early PD both impair WM, the deficits may be related to the interruption of different processes that contribute to WM performance. Early PD disrupted inhibitory processes, whereas mild AD did not. The WM deficits seen in patients with AD may be secondary to deficits in other cognitive capacities, including semantic memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contributions of source and inhibitory mechanisms to age-related retroactive interference in verbal working memory.

Determining contributions of source-monitoring and inhibitory function to age-related forgetting has been an elusive goal for cognitive theorists. Five studies used a verbal working memory paradigm to examine mechanisms accounting for disproportionate retroactive interference (RI) experienced with adult aging. Participants distinguished studied target-word pairs from interfering pairs that were read aloud. Source-monitoring and inhibitory task components varied through manipulations of response requirements. RI effects were primarily due to source-monitoring failures rather than to inhibitory failures. Removing both source and inhibitory components eliminated age differences in RI. When source monitoring was emphasized, RI continued to be observed in all age groups but disproportionately for older adults. Process dissociation analyses of memory found recollection decreases and familiarity increases consistent with source failures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of amino acid replacements around the reactive site of chicken ovomucoid domain 3 on the inhibitory activity toward chymotrypsin and trypsin

We have previously shown that replacing the P1-site residue(Ala) of chicken ovomucoid domain 3 (OMCHI3) with a Met or Lysresults in the acquisition of inhibitory activity toward chymotrypsinor trypsin, respectively. However, the inhibitory activitiesthus induced are not strong. In the present study, we introducedadditional amino acid replacements around the reactive siteto try to make the P1-site mutants more effective inhibitorsof chymotrypsin or trypsin. The amino acid replacement AspTyrat the P2' site of OMCHI3(P1Met) resulted in conversion to a35000-fold more effective inhibitor of chymotrypsin with aninhibitor constant (K_i) of 1.17x10^–11 M. The K_i valueof OMCHI3(P1Met, P2'Ala) indicated that the effect on the interactionwith chymotrypsin of removing a negative charge from the P2'site was greater than that of introducing an aromatic ring.Similarly, enhanced inhibition of trypsin was observed whenthe AspTyr replacement was introduced into the P2' site of OMCHI3(P1Lys).Two additional replacements, AspAla at the P4 site and ArgAlaat the P3' site, made the mutant a more effective inhibitorof trypsin with a K_i value of 1.44x10^–9 M. By contrast,ArgAla replacement at the P3' site of OMCHI3(P1Met, P2'Tyr)resulted in a greatly reduced inhibition of chymotrypsin, andAspAla replacement at the P4 site produced only a small changewhen compared with a natural variant of OMCHI3. These resultsclearly indicate that not only the P1-site residue but alsothe characteristics, particularly the electrostatic properties,of the amino acid residues around the reactive site of the proteaseinhibitor determine the strength of its interactions with proteases.Furthermore, amino acids with different characteristics arerequired around the reactive site for strong inhibition of chymotrypsinand trypsin.     

芹菜素和山萘酚对细胞色素CYP1A2抑制机理研究

目的:我们先前的体外肝微粒体抑制活性实验,已证实芹菜素和山萘酚对细胞色素CYP 1A2有较强的抑制作用。然而,其抑制机理仍然未知。分子模拟方法能更好了解这2个天然产物对1A2的抑制机理。方法:采用分子对接、分子动力学模拟及结合自由能计算的方法,研究它们对1A2的抑制作用。结果:芹菜素和山萘酚对1A2的预测结合自由能分别是-18.01和-16.40 kcal/mol,这与实验抑制活性结果一致。在1A2结合口袋中,残基呈平面性排列,与平面芹菜素和山萘酚存在紧密的范德华和疏水相互作用,因而小分子有较强的抑制作用。此外,活性位点残基也与小分子发生氢键和盐桥等相互作用,使小分子在结合口袋中的位置得到固定。     

Inhibitory effect of parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) residue on growth of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes Mart Solms.) II. Relative effect of flower,leaf, stem,and root residue

The relative effect of residue of leaf, flower, stem, and root of parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) on growth of water hyacinth was studied. The inhibitory activity of the residue as shown by its effect on biomass and healthy leaf number (HLN) of treated plants was in the order: leaf and flower >stem >root. Total phenolic acids in the medium after 72 hr of suspending the plant part residue were maximum in flower followed by leaf, root, and stem, successively. The dry leaf powder (DLP) and dry flower powder (DFP) at and above 0.50% (w/v) and dry stem powder (DSP) at 1.00% (w/v) killed water hyacinth in about one month. Dry root powder (DRP) at the highest dose (1.25% w/v) reduced the growth of the treated plants drastically, but the plants recovered after about one month. The DSP at 0.50% (w/v) and DRP at 0.25–0.75% (w/v) supported growth of treated plants, probably due to lower levels of inhibitors, allowing utilization of constituents of the residue as nutrients. Using wheat seedlings as a reference material, it was observed that in aquaculture at different levels of parthenium plant parts residue, water hyacinth plants were much more sensitive to inhibitory activity. Thus, water hyacinth is suggested as a material for bioassay of inhibitory activity of the parthenium plant residue.     

响应面法优化核桃ACE抑制肽的制备工艺研究

以核桃分离蛋白为原料,用Neutrase 0.8L酶解制备高活性的ACE抑制肽.采用反相高效液相色谱（RP-HPLC）法测定酶解多肽的ACE抑制率,同时以水解度和ACE抑制率为考查指标,通过单因素试验及响应面试验设计,优化了中性蛋白酶（Neutrase 0.8L）酶解核桃分离蛋白的酶解工艺.结果表明：各因素对水解度的影响顺序为pH〉温度〉E/S,对ACE抑制率的影响顺序为pH〉E/S〉温度;最佳酶解工艺条件为：pH 6.81、温度55℃、时间2h、底物质量浓度2%、酶与底物比3.43%,酶解产物的水解度达到8.52%,ACE抑制率达到67.94%.     

杂合抗菌肽MgJ抗菌活性的初步研究

采用琼脂孔穴扩散法和微量稀释法,对人工合成的杂合抗菌肽抗菌肽MgJ的抗菌活性进行研究,结果表明,抗菌肽MgJ具有较强的抑制大肠杆菌与金黄色葡萄球菌的活性,对金黄色葡萄球菌的最低抑菌浓度(MIC)为10μg/ml,对大肠杆菌的最低抑菌浓度(MIC)为5μg/ml.     

An Extended Comparator Hypothesis Account of Superconditioning.

Three conditioned taste aversion experiments with rats investigated superconditioning. In each experiment, alternate exposures of 2 flavor compounds with a common element (i.e., AB/AS) were administered to establish an inhibitory relationship between the 2 unique elements, B and S, and prior to testing, S was paired with lithium chloride (LiCl). In Experiment 1, pairings of a neutral cue (X) with S in compound with B after the AB/AS exposures resulted in superconditioning between X and S. Extinction of the common element (A) just before the S-LiCl pairing attenuated both the inhibitory relationship between B and S (Experiment 2) and superconditioning between X and S (Experiment 3). These observations suggest that superconditioning consists of enhanced performance rather than enhanced associative acquisition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)