No abstract

Our findings suggest that NG may exert its antidiabetic effect by extra-pancreatic action and by suppressing carbohydrate absorption from intestine, thereby reducing the postprandial increase in blood GLU levels.

The aim of the current study was to investigate the oral antidiabetic activity of four structurally-related triterpenic acids: ursolic (RE-01), oleanolic (RE-02), moronic (RE-03) and morolic (RE-04) acids. STZ-nicotinamide diabetic rats were treated with these triterpenes (50 mg/kg) and the antidiabetic effects in acute experiment were determined. All compounds showed significant antidiabetic activity in comparison with control group (p<0.05). The in vitro inhibitory activity of compounds against protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP-1B) was also evaluated. At 50 μM, the enzymatic activity was almost completely inhibited. All compounds were docked with a crystal structure of PTP-1B. Docking results suggested the potential binding of the triterpenic acids in a binding pocket next to the catalytic site. An extensive hydrogen bond network with the carboxyl group and Van der Waals interactions stabilize the protein-ligand complexes.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Giardiasis is a worldwide parasitic disease that affects mainly children and immunosuppressed people. Side effects and the emergence of resistance over current used drugs make imperative looking for new antiparasitics through discovering of new biological targets and designing of novel drugs. Recently, it has determined that gastric proton-pump inhibitors (PPI) have anti-giardiasic activity. The glycolytic enzyme, triosephosphate isomerase (GlTIM), is one of its potential targets. Therefore, we employed the scaffold of PPI to design new compounds aimed to increase their antigiardial capacity by inactivating GlTIM. Here we demonstrated that two novel PPI-derivatives (BHO2 and BHO3), have better anti-giardiasic activity than omeprazole in concentrations around 120–130 µM, without cytotoxic effect on mammal cell cultures. The derivatives inactivated GlTIM through the chemical modification of Cys222 promoting local structural changes in the enzyme. Furthermore, derivatives forms adducts linked to Cys residues through a C-S bond. We demonstrated that PPI can be used as scaffolds to design better antiparasitic molecules; we also are proposing a molecular mechanism of reaction for these novel derivatives.