An overview on the potential of natural products as ureas

Ureases, enzymes that catalyze urea hydrolysis, have received considerable attention for their impact on living organisms’ health and life quality. On the one hand, the persistence of urease activity in human and animal cells can be the cause of some diseases and pathogen infections. On the other h...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Luzia V. Modolo, Aline X. de Souza, Lívia P. Horta, Débora P. Araujo, Ângelo de Fátima
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2015-01-01
Series:Journal of Advanced Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090123214001088
Description
Summary:Ureases, enzymes that catalyze urea hydrolysis, have received considerable attention for their impact on living organisms’ health and life quality. On the one hand, the persistence of urease activity in human and animal cells can be the cause of some diseases and pathogen infections. On the other hand, food production can be negatively affected by ureases of soil microbiota that, in turn, lead to losses of nitrogenous nutrients in fields supplemented with urea as fertilizer. In this context, nature has proven to be a rich resource of natural products bearing a variety of scaffolds that decrease the ureolytic activity of ureases from different organisms. Therefore, this work compiles the state-of-the-art researches focused on the potential of plant natural products (present in extracts or as pure compounds) as urease inhibitors of clinical and/or agricultural interests. Emphasis is given to ureases of Helicobacter pylori, Canavalia ensiformis and soil microbiota although the active site of this class of hydrolases is conserved among living organisms.
ISSN:2090-1232
2090-1224