Korean Journal of Mycology (Kor. J. Mycol.)
Indexed in SCOPUS, KCI, DOAJ
OPEN ACCESS, PEER REVIEWED
pISSN 0253-651X
eISSN 2383-5249

Screening of Inhibitors of Extracellular Serine Protease of Acanthamoeba castellanii from Mushroom Extracts

1College of Natural Science, Kongju National University, Kongju 314-701, Korea
2College of Health Sciences, SunMoon University, Asan 336-708, Korea
3Korean Collection of Herbal Extracts, Inc., Kongju 314-701, Korea

Correspondence to dnalove@kongju.ac.kr

Korean Journal of Mycology (Kor J Mycol) December 31, 2008, 36(2):178-182.
https://doi.org/10.4489/kjm.2008.36.2.178
(Received November 26, 2008. Accepted December 18, 2008)
Published: December 31, 2008.
© The Korean Society of Mycology

ABSTRACT

Although the number of patients with Acanthamoeba keratitis has increased dramatically since the widespread use of contact lens, it is still very hard to cure the disease. The proteases from the Acanthamoeba were reported to play important role in the pathogenesis of keratitis. In this study, the inhibitors for extracellular serine proteases of A. castellanii were screened from the extracts of 230 mushroom samples collected from various regions of Korea. The mushrooms were extracted with methanol and water (65 oC). Filtered and concentrated extracts (0.3 mg/ml) were preincubated with proteases before addition of peptide substrate N-succinyl-ala-ala-pro-phe p-anilide. The selected extracts showing strong inhibitory effects were characterized. Although inhibition with single extract was not so high enough, the complete inhibition was achieved with combination of two extracts. The selected extract showed little effect on other serine proteases such as thrombin (human and bovine) and on general protease such as protease K.

Keywords

Acanthamoeba castellanii, Inhibitor, Keratitis, Mushrooms, Protease

Section