It was disclosed in our group for the first time that the flavonoids in
Lonicera japonica Thunb. are related to its therapy for gastric ulcer. Based on this finding, 20 flavonoids were selected for
Helicobacter pylori urease inhibitory activity evaluation, and quercetin showed excellent potency with IC
50 of 11.2 卤 0.9 渭M. Structure鈥揳ctivity relationship analysis revealed that removal of the 5-, 3-, or 3鈥?OH in quercetin led to a sharp decrease in activity. Thus, 3- and 5-OH as well as 3鈥?4鈥?dihydroxyl groups are believed to be the key structural characteristics for active compounds, which was supported by the molecular docking study. Meanwhile, the results obtained from molecular docking and enzymatic kinetics research strongly suggested that quercetin is a noncompetitive urease inhibitor, indicating that quercetin may be able to tolerate extensive structural modification irrespective of the shape of the active site cavity and could be used as a lead candidate for the development of novel urease inhibitors.
Keywords:
Lonicera japonica Thunb.; quercetin; urease inhibitor; noncompetitive inhibition