High level expression, purification, and characterization of the shrimp antimicrobial peptide, Ch-penaeidin, in Pichia pastoris

Penaeidins, members of a new family of antimicrobial peptides constitutively produced and stored in the haemocytes of penaeid shrimp, display antimicrobial activity against bacteria, and fungi. Here, a DNA sequence encoding the mature Ch-penaeidin peptide was cloned into the pPIC9K vector and transformed into Pichia pastoris. The transformed cells were screened for multi-copy plasmids using increasing concentrations of G418. Positive colonies carrying chromosomal integrations of the Chp gene were identified by phenotype and PCR. When transformed cells were induced with methanol, SDS-PAGE and Western blotting revealed the production of a similar to6100 Da recombinant CHP (rCHP) expression product. Large scale expression revealed that rCHP was produced at 108 mg/L under optimal conditions in the highest Chp-producing P. pastoris clone. The antimicrobial activities of rCHP were studied by liquid phase analysis, which revealed that rCHP exhibited activities against some Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, but had a relatively low activity against some fungi. Purification of rCHP by cation exchange chromatography and subsequent automated amino acid sequencing revealed the presence of four additional amino acids (YVEF) at the N-terminus that belonged to the cleaved fusion signal peptide; these residues may account for the observed decrease in antifungal activity. Together, these observations indicate that rCHP is an effective antimicrobial peptide that can be successfully produced at high levels in the yeast, and therefore may be a potential antimicrobial candidate for practical use. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A new naphthoquinoneimine derivative from the marine algal-derived endophytic fungus Aspergillus niger EN-13

Cultivation of an endophytic fungus Aspergillus niger EN-13 that was isolated from the inner tissue of the marine brown alga Colpomenia sinuosa resulted in the characterization of a new naphthoquinoneimine derivative, namely, 5,7-dihydroxy-2-[1-(4methoxy-6-oxo-6H-pyran-2-yl)-2-phenylethylaniino]-[1,4]naphthoquinone. The structure of the new compound was established on the basis of various NMR spectroscopic analyses including 2D NMR techniques, EI-MS, and HR-ESI-MS. This compound displayed moderate antifungal activity. (c) 2007 Bin Gui Wang. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society. All rights reserved.

水溶性壳聚糖衍生物的取代基团及氨基正电性对抑菌活性的影响

壳聚糖是一种天然的聚阳离子多糖，可以从甲壳类动物、菌类、昆虫等自然资源中提取得到。壳聚糖具有良好的生物相容性，天然无毒，可生物降解，从而在生物工程、制药、化妆品、纺织品、农业等领域引起了广泛关注。 随着对壳聚糖以及壳聚糖衍生物研究的深入，壳聚糖的抑菌活性由于农业杀菌剂的环境问题和抗药性问题的出现而得到重视。但是，对于壳聚糖抑菌活性的研究大都集中于壳聚糖的分子量和脱乙酰度对其活性的影响，而相应的壳聚糖衍生物很少。本文合成了羧甲基壳聚糖希夫碱，N-取代羧甲基壳聚糖，脲取代羧甲基壳聚糖，壳聚糖季铵盐以及羧甲基壳聚糖季铵盐，并对它们的抑菌活性进行了研究，同时探讨了导入基团与抑菌活性间的构效关系。 羧甲基壳聚糖希夫碱对苹果腐烂病菌、番茄早疫病菌和棉花枯萎病菌的抑制活性研究结果表明2-（2-羟基-5-硝基苯亚胺基）羧甲基壳聚糖和2-（2-羟基-5-氯苯亚胺基）羧甲基壳聚糖的抑菌活性高于壳聚糖、羧甲基壳聚糖和2-（2-羟基苯亚胺基）羧甲基壳聚糖，原因可能是2-羟基-5-硝基苯亚胺基和2-羟基-5-氯苯亚胺基两个活性基团的引入。对番茄早疫病菌和苹果轮纹病菌的抑制效果表明，N-取代羧甲基壳聚糖的抑菌活性低于壳聚糖和羧甲基壳聚糖，脲取代羧甲基壳聚糖的抑菌活性高于羧甲基壳聚糖。 测定了壳聚糖季铵盐对灰葡萄孢以及炭疽病菌的抑制活性，结果表明壳聚糖季铵盐的抑制活性高于壳聚糖。因为壳聚糖分子的正电荷可以和菌体细胞壁的负离子相互结合，从而导致菌体死亡，而壳聚糖季铵盐分子中明显的正电性可以促进这种结合能力，从而更进一步的增强抑菌活性。由于相同的原因，抑菌活性随着正电荷的增强而增强，与此同时，高分子量壳聚糖季铵盐由于其较大的体积而具有比低分子量壳聚糖季铵盐更高的抑菌活性。 为了进一步验证氨基的正电性与抑菌活性的关系，合成了羧甲基壳聚糖季铵盐并对这类衍生物对灰葡萄孢和炭疽病菌的抑制活性进行了测定，结果表明，羧甲基壳聚糖季铵盐的抑菌活性高于羧甲基壳聚糖，且部分羧甲基壳聚糖季铵盐的抑菌活性高于壳聚糖。500μg/mL时，N-(2-羟基-5-硝基苯亚甲基）-N,N-二甲基羧甲基壳聚糖和N-(2-羟基-5-氯苯亚甲基）-N,N-二甲基羧甲基壳聚糖对苹果轮纹病菌的抑制率都达到100%。壳聚糖季铵盐中正电荷在抑菌活性中的作用再一次被证实。

Synthesis of acyl thiourea derivatives of chitosan and their antimicrobial activities in vitro

Three different acyl thiourea derivatives of chitosan (CS) were synthesized and their structures were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The antimicrobial behaviors of CS and its derivatives against four species of bacteria (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Sarcina) and four crop-threatening pathogenic fungi (Alternaria solani, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Saec, and Phyllisticta zingiberi) were investigated. The results indicated that the antimicrobial activities of the acyl thiourea derivatives are much better than that of the parent CS. The minimum value of MIC and MBC of the derivatives against E coli was 15.62 and 62.49 mu g/mL, respectively. All of the acyl thiourea derivatives had a significant inhibitory effect on the fungi in concentrations of 50 - 500 mu g/mL; the maximum inhibitory index was 66.67%. The antifungal activities of the chloracetyl thiourea derivatives of CS are noticeably higher than the acetyl and benzoyl thiourea derivatives. The degree of grafting of the acyl thiourea group in the derivatives was related to antifungal activity; higher substitution resulted in stronger antifungal activity. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Studies on synthesis, structure and biological activities of novel triazole compounds containing thioamide

Four novel triazole compounds containing thioamide group were designed and synthesized by using triazole, phenyl isothiocyanate and aryl ethyl ketone as raw material. Their structures were conformed by elemental analysis, H-1 NMR, IR and MS spectra. The crystal structure of 1-[1-anilinothiocarbonyl-1-(4-fluorobenzoyl)methyl]-1,2,4-trizole has been determined by X-ray diffraction analysis. The preliminary bioassays have shown that the title compounds exhibit certain antifungal activity.

Synthesis, crystal structure and biological activities of N '-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-2-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl) acetohydrazide

The title compound, N'-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-2-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)acetohydrazide, was synthesized and its structure was confirmed by means of IR, MS,H-1 NMR and elemental analysis. The single crystal structure of the title compound was determined by X-ray diffraction. The preliminary biological test shows that the synthesized compound has a low antifungal activity.