English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Background  Inhibitors of pancreatic alpha-amylase are potential drugs to treat diabetes and obesity. In order to find compounds that would be effective amylase inhibitors,  in vitro  and  in vivo  models are usually used. The accuracy of models is limited, but these tools are nonetheless valuable.  In vitro  models could be used in large screenings involving thousands of chemicals that are tested to find potential lead compounds.  In vivo  models are still used as preliminary mean of testing compounds behavior in the whole organism. In the case of alpha-amylase inhibitors, both rats and rabbits could be chosen as  in vivo  models. The question was which animal could present more accuracy with regard to its pancreatic alpha-amylase.    Results  As there is no crystal structure of these enzymes, a molecular modeling study was done in order to compare the rabbit and rat enzymes with the human one. The overall result is that rabbit enzyme could probably be a better choice in this regard, but in the case of large ligands, which could make putative interactions with the −4 subsite of pancreatic alpha-amylase, interpretation of results should be made cautiously.    Conclusion  Molecular modeling tools could be used to choose the most suitable model enzyme that would help to identify new enzyme inhibitors. In the case of alpha-amylase, three-dimensional structures of animal enzymes show differences with the human one which should be taken into account when testing potential new drugs.

Reflection on design and testing of pancreatic alpha-amylase inhibitors: an in silico comparison between rat and rabbit enzyme models