Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.2.1.20 (alpha-glucosidase)
 4,237 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We have used the alpha-glucosidase inhibitor, castanospermine, to investigate the possible involvement of N-linked glycosylation in the process of neurite outgrowth both during the development and regeneration of sympathetic nerve fibres into the iris of the rat. The effects on nerve growth were assessed qualitatively using catecholamine histochemistry and quantitatively by measuring the uptake of [3H]noradrenaline. Castanospermine was injected during the first, second or third postnatal week or during the second to fourth week after degeneration of adrenergic nerve terminals with the neurotoxin, 6-hydroxydopamine. Results showed that both the initial growth of sympathetic nerve fibres, as well as the regeneration of these fibres, was inhibited by castanospermine treatment. The inhibitory effects were restricted to injection of castanospermine at particular time periods during postnatal development and regeneration. These results suggest that N-linked carbohydrates may be important in particular stages of the processes of initial nerve growth and regeneration of sympathetic nerve fibres in the iris.
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PMID:Carbohydrates play a role in neurite outgrowth in vivo during development and regeneration. 807 54

Castanospermine is an indolizidine alkaloid that is found in the seeds of the Australian tree Castanospermum australe. These seeds have been reported to be toxic to animals and to cause severe gastrointestinal upset. In order to determine whether castanospermine is responsible for this toxicity, the alkaloid was injected into young mice or rats, and its effects on various intestinal disaccharidases were determined. Another indolizidine alkaloid, the alpha-mannosidase inhibitor swainsonine, was also tested to compare its effects to those of castanospermine. Castanospermine strongly and rapidly inhibited the activity of the disaccharidases, sucrase, maltase, and trehalase, with sucrase being the most sensitive to inhibition. The loss of activity of these enzymes, especially sucrase, in injected animals appeared to be due to a direct inhibition of enzyme activity, rather than to a change in the structure of the glycan chains of the enzyme, since only minor alterations in carbohydrates were observed. On the other hand, swainsonine, when injected into animals, also profoundly decreased the activity of the sucrase, but this alkaloid had no direct effect on sucrase activity although it did markedly alter the carbohydrate nature of this glycoprotein. This change in oligosaccharide structure may affect protein conformation, stability, or targeting, any or all of which may in turn affect activity. In in vitro studies with the purified enzyme, castanospermine was found to be a competitive inhibitor of intestinal sucrase, but it was a noncompetitive inhibitor of intestinal maltase. A number of other glucosidase inhibitors that inhibit sucrase activity in vitro are also described.
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PMID:The effects of castanospermine and swainsonine on the activity and synthesis of intestinal sucrase. 848 56

Castanospermine (CAST) is a known and potent inhibitor of various alpha-glucosidases in eukaryotes. In this work, we elucidated whether CAST could also be used for determining bacterial alpha-glucosidase activity, when measured with 4-methylumbelliferyl-alpha- D-glucoside as a substrate, both in a complex bacterial community, in activated sludge and in pure cultures of bacterial isolates. We found that 140 microM CAST inhibited alpha-glucosidase activity by 30% in a pure culture of Pseudomonas stutzeri. The alpha-glucosidase activity in Chryseobacterium gleum was inhibited by 90% at a concentration of 150 microM CAST, whereas the alpha-glucosidase in Paracoccus denitrificans was resistant to the inhibitor. CAST (140 microM) reduced alpha-glucosidase activity in activated sludge by 40%, the respiration rate being reduced by only 12%. No significant inhibition of the respiration rate was observed in Ps. stutzeri or Pa. denitrificans, whereas the respiration rate in C. gleum grown in a medium containing starch was inhibited by 50% with 140 microM CAST. No effect of CAST was observed in C. gleum grown in a complex medium. This indicated that CAST, at the concentration used, did not cause a general negative effect on bacterial activity. The results suggest that the CAST assay may potentially be useful in determining whether alpha-glucosidase activity, starch, poly- and disaccharides contribute appreciably to the overall activity of a bacterial community. However, the assay should not be used for quantitative measurements of such activity.
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PMID:Inhibition of bacterial alpha-glucosidases by castanospermine in pure cultures and activated sludge. 1207 34

Previous studies have suggested that alpha-glucosidase inhibitors such as castanospermine and deoxynojirimycin inhibit dengue virus type 1 infection by disrupting the folding of the structural proteins prM and E, a step crucial to viral secretion. We extend these studies by evaluating the inhibitory activity of castanospermine against a panel of clinically important flaviviruses including all four serotypes of dengue virus, yellow fever virus, and West Nile virus. Using in vitro assays we demonstrated that infections by all serotypes of dengue virus were inhibited by castanospermine. In contrast, yellow fever virus and West Nile virus were partially and almost completely resistant to the effects of the drug, respectively. Castanospermine inhibited dengue virus infection at the level of secretion and infectivity of viral particles. Importantly, castanospermine prevented mortality in a mouse model of dengue virus infection, with doses of 10, 50, and 250 mg/kg of body weight per day being highly effective at promoting survival (P < or = 0.0001). Correspondingly, castanospermine had no adverse or protective effect on West Nile virus mortality in an analogous mouse model. Overall, our data suggest that castanospermine has a strong antiviral effect on dengue virus infection and warrants further development as a possible treatment in humans.
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PMID:Castanospermine, a potent inhibitor of dengue virus infection in vitro and in vivo. 1599 63


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