Repository hosted by TU Delft Library

In the present study, the inhibition of human glutathione S-transferase P1-1 (GSTP1-1) by the flavonoid quercetin has been investigated. The results show a time- and concentration-dependent inhibition of GSTP1-1 by quercetin. GSTP1-1 activity is completely inhibited upon 1 h incubation with 100 μM quercetin or 2 h incubation with 25 μM quercetin, whereas 1 and 10 μM quercetin inhibit GSTP1-1 activity to a significant extent reaching a maximum of 25 and 42% inhibition respectively after 2 h. Co-incubation with tyrosinase greatly enhances the rate of inactivation, whereas co-incubation with ascorbic acid or glutathione prevents this inhibition. Addition of glutathione upon complete inactivation of GSTP1-1 partially restores the activity. Inhibition studies with the GSTP1-1 mutants C47S, C101S and the double mutant C47S/C101S showed that cysteine 47 is the key residue in the interaction between quercetin and GSTP1-1. HPLC and LC-MS analysis of trypsin digested GSTP1-1 inhibited by quercetin did not show formation of a covalent bond between Cys 47 residue of the peptide fragment 45-54 and quercetin. It was demonstrated that the inability to detect the covalent quercetin-peptide adduct using LC-MS is due to the reversible nature of the adduct-formation in combination with rapid and preferential dimerization of the peptide fragment once liberated from the protein. Nevertheless, the results of the present study indicate that quinone-type oxidation products of quercetin likely act as specific active site inhibitors of GSTP1-1 by binding to cysteine 47. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gut barrier function is key in maintaining a balanced response between the host and its microbiome. The microbiota can modulate changes in gut barrier as well as metabolic and inflammatory responses. This highly complex system involves numerous microbiota-derived factors. The gut symbiont Akkermansia muciniphila is positively correlated with a lean phenotype, reduced body weight gain, amelioration of metabolic responses and restoration of gut barrier function by modulation of mucus layer thickness. However, the molecular mechanisms behind its metabolic and immunological regulatory properties are unexplored. Herein, we identify a highly abundant outer membrane pili-like protein of A. muciniphila MucT that is directly involved in immune regulation and enhancement of trans-epithelial resistance. The purified Amuc 1100 protein and enrichments containing all its associated proteins induced production of specific cytokines through activation of Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 and TLR4. This mainly leads to high levels of IL-10 similar to those induced by the other beneficial immune suppressive microorganisms such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii A2-165 and Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1. Together these results indicate that outer membrane protein composition and particularly the newly identified highly abundant pili-like protein Amuc-1100 of A. muciniphila are involved in host immunological homeostasis at the gut mucosa, and improvement of gut barrier function. © 2017 Ottman et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.