• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.163-167
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• 2010

[ $\alpha$ ]Glucosidase (EC 3.2.1.20) is a glycosidase that hydrolyzes disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides resulting in the release of α-D-glucose. In this study, $\alpha$-glucosidase activity in the hemolymph and midgut of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori and Japanese oak silkmoth Antheraea yamamai was measured using maltose, sucrose, trehalose, and p-nitrophenyl $\alpha$-D-glucopyranoside as substrates. In general, hemolymph $\alpha$-glucosidase activity was higher in B. mori than in A. yamamai. In contrast, midgut $\alpha$-glucosidase activity was higher in A. yamamai than in B. mori for all of the substrates tested. $\alpha$-Glucosidase activity in the midgut of both B. mori and A. yamamai showed similar responses to changes in pH and temperature for all of the substrates tested. Native (7.5%) PAGE of hemolymph and midgut proteins from B. mori and A. yamamai followed by staining with 4-methylumbelliferyl $\alpha$-D-glucoside (MUG) indicated that the $\alpha$-glucosidases of these related lepidopterans are functionally similar but structurally different. In comparison to $\alpha$-glucosidase activity from A. yamamai, $\alpha$-glucosidase activity from B. mori was generally less sensitive to the $\alpha$-glucosidase inhibitors, 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ), acarbose, and voglibose when the activity was determined using maltose, sucrose, and trehalose.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.191-196
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• 1993

This method using the synthesis substrate of $5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-{\alpha}-galactoside\;(X-{\alpha}-Gal)$ was examined for the differential enumeration of Bifidobacteria and lactic acid-producing bacteria. Bifidobacteria possess a high level of ${\alpha}-galactosidase$ activity. Bifidobacterium longum KCTC 3215 exhibited the highest ${\alpha}-galactosidase$ specific activity (8.57 units/mg protein). Determination of ${\alpha}-galactosidase$ activity using the PNPG procedure showed that Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Pediococcus, and Leuconostoc strain had lower ${\alpha}-galactosidase$ activity as compared to Bifidobacteria. The $X-{\alpha}-Gal$ based medium is useful to identify Bifidobacteria among lactic acid-producing bacteria since the enzyme action of ${\alpha}-galactosidase$ spills $X-{\alpha}-Gal$ substrate and releases indol which impacts a blue color to Bifidobacterial colonies on agar plates. All strains of Bifidobacteria appeared as blue colonies on MRS agar medium supplemented with $100\;{\mu}M\;X-{\alpha}-Gal$ while colonies of other lactic acid-producing bacteria appeared white or light blue.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.223-230
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• 2005

This paper presents a new approach to investigate spatial correlation between independent components of brain alpha activity in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). To avoid potential problems of simultaneous fMRI and EEG acquisitions in imaging pure alpha activity, data from each modality were acquired separately under a 'three conditions' setup where one of the conditions involved closing eyes and relaxing, thus making it conducive to generation of alpha activity. The other two conditions -- eyes open in a lighted room or engaged in a mental arithmetic task, were designed to attenuate alpha activity. Using a Mixture Density Independent Component Analysis (MD-ICA) that incorporates flexible non-linearity functions into the conventional ICA framework, we could identify the spatiotemporal components of fMRI activations and EEG activities associated with the alpha rhythm. Then, the sources of the individual EEG alpha activity component were localized by a Maximum Entropy (ME) method that is specially designed to find the most probable dipole distribution minimizing the localization error in sense of LMSE. The resulting active dipoles were spatially transformed to 3D MRls of the subject and compared to fMRI alpha activity maps. A good spatial correlation was found in the spatial distribution of alpha sources derived independently from fMRI and EEG, suggesting the proposed method can localize the cortical areas responsible for generating alpha activity successfully in either fMRI or EEG. Finally a functional connectivity analysis was applied to show that alpha activity sources of both modalities were also functionally connected to each other, implying that they are involved in performing a common function: 'the generation of alpha rhythms'.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.374-382
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• 2013

The objective of this study was determined to evaluate ${\alpha}$-amylase, ${\alpha}$-glucosidase, pancreatic lipase inhibition in vitro and DPPH radical scavenging activity of the several Korean resources plants. The ${\alpha}$-amylase inhibitory activity of Salicornia herbacea, Erythronium japonicum (flower) and Phragmites communis (root) in water extract showed relatively high 62.8%, 66.5% and 69.3%, respectively. The ${\alpha}$-amylase inhibitory activity of Citrus junos (pericarp) and Cornus officinalis in methanol extract was found to have an effect with 32.8% in Citrus junos (pericarp) and 60.9% in Cornus officinalis. Corylopsis coreana in both water and methanol extract had the highest ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitory activity of 81.7% and 89.5%, while the extract of Portulaca oleracea, Ficus carica and Citrus junos was not measured ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitory activity at given experiment concentration. Depending on the extraction solvent and the plant species, it was observed that there was a significant difference in ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitory activity. The pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity showed relatively higher in the methanol extract than water extract except pericarp of Citrus junos. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of selected plants was much difference between measured plant species, and showed that the increase was proportional to the concentration. These results suggested that selected plants had the potent biological activity on carbohydrate, lipid Inhibitory activity and antioxidant activity, therefore these plant resources could be a good materials to develop medicinal preparations, nutraceuticals or health functional foods for diabetes or obesity.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.1365-1374
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• 2014

Thirteen analogs of tridecapeptide ${\alpha}$-factor (WHWLQLKPGQPMY) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with C- or N-terminal Trp extension and isosteric replacement by Aib at position 8 and 11, Trp at position 13, D-Ala at position 9, and Orn and Glu at position 6 were synthesized and assayed for their biological activity. Receptor binding assay was carried out using our newly developed spectrophotometric method with detector peptide 14. C- or N-terminal extended analogs, ${\alpha}$-factor-$[Trp]_n$ (n =1-5) 1-5 and $[N-Trp]_1$-${\alpha}$-factor 6, were all less active than native ${\alpha}$-factor and gradual decreases in both activity and receptor affinity were observed with greater Trp extension. Trp-substituted analog at position 13, $[Trp^{13}]{\alpha}$-factor 7, exhibited about 2-fold reductions in both activity and receptor affinity. Aib-substituted analogs, $[Aib^8]{\alpha}$-factor 8 and $[Aib^{11}]{\alpha}$-factor 9, showed 5- to 10-fold reduction in activity as well as 3-fold reduction in receptor affinity compared to native ${\alpha}$-factor. $[Orn^6]{\alpha}$-factor 10 demonstrated strong potency with a 7.0-fold increase in halo activity as well as 1.8-fold increase in receptor affinity compared to native ${\alpha}$-factor. For two double substituted analogs, [$Glu^6,{\small{D}}-Ala^9$]${\alpha}$-factor 12 showed the slightly decreased potency in halo activity compared to analog 10, whereas [$Orn^6,{\small{D}}-Ala^9$]${\alpha}$-factor 11 exhibited 15-fold higher halo activity as well as nearly 3-fold higher receptor affinity compared to native ${\alpha}$-factor.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.602-606
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• 2014

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: We investigated total 26 ingredients of Saengshik which will be commercially produced as an anti-diabetic dietary supplement. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Thirteen vegetables, nine cereals, three legumes and one seed were extracted with aqueous ethanol for 2 h at $60^{\circ}C$, and evaluated for their inhibitory effects against ${\alpha}$-amylase and ${\alpha}$-glucosidase and for total phenolic and flavonoid contents. RESULTS: All ingredients inhibited ${\alpha}$-amylase activity except cabbage. Strong inhibitory activity of ${\alpha}$-amylase was observed in leek, black rice, angelica and barley compared with acarbose as a positive control. Stronger inhibition of ${\alpha}$-glucosidase activity was found in small water dropwort, radish leaves, sorghum and cabbage than acarbose. All Saengshik ingredients suppressed ${\alpha}$-glucosidase activity in the range of 0.3-60.5%. Most ingredients contained total phenols which were in the range of 1.2-229.4 mg gallic acid equivalent/g dried extract. But, total phenolic contents were not observed in carrot, pumpkin and radish. All ingredients contained flavonoid in the range of 11.6-380.7 mg catechin equivalent/g dried extract. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that Saengshik containing these ingredients would be an effective dietary supplement for diabetes.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.355-363
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• 2008

In order to extract only the alpha activity related signals from EEG recordings, we have applied Constrained Independent Component Analysis (cICA), a new extension of ICA in which some a priori knowledge of the alpha activity is utilized to extract only desired components. Its extraction (or filtering) performance has been compared to that of the conventional band-pass filtering via the scalp alpha power maps and cortical source maps of the alpha activity. Our results demonstrate that the alpha power maps and cortical source maps from the cICA-extracted alpha signals reveal more focalized alpha generating regions of the brain than those from the band-pass filtered alpha EEG signals. Furthermore they match more closely the activated regions of the brain mapped using fMRI, validating our results. We believe that the cICA-based filtering approach of EEG signals is a more effective means of extracting a specific brain activity reflected in EEG signals that will result in more accurate source localization or imaging maps.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.53-58
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• 2001

Glycosidase activities in the grape flesh (Marguerite) were assayed, and the order of activity was marked as follows: ${\alpha}$-D-galactosidase>${\alpha}$-D-mannosidase>${\alpha}$-D-glucosidase>${\beta}$-D-galactosidase>${\beta}$-D-glucosidase. Of these glycosidases, ${\alpha}$- and ${\beta}$-D-galactosidases were prominently expressed by the treatment of gibberellic acid, resulting in 56 and 238% increase of activity, respectively. Most of ${\alpha}$-D-galactosidase was found in the flesh texture, and the activity increase by gibberellic acid occurred mostly in this tissue. The increase in ${\alpha}$-D-galactosidase activity was dependent on the concentration of gibberellic acid treated, showing a positive correlation. Gibberellic acid affected the content of total protein in the grape flesh, 49% increase by 75 ppm treatment. Above this concentration, higher gibberellic acid level did not influence the protein expression. Specific activity of the ${\alpha}$-D-galactosidase still increased, showing 24% increase in activity. Grape flesh subjected by gibberellic acid (100 ppm) resulted in the increased activity against a natural substrate, stachyose, showing 55% increase in activity from the grapes treated with 100 ppm of gibberellic acid. Other natural substrates, such as melibiose and raffinose, were also considerably hydrolyzed, and the extent was similar to that of stachyose hydrolysis. During postharvest storage, ${\alpha}$-D-galactosidase activity in the grape flesh increased by 51% after 20 days and then declined slowly.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.203-207
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• 1999

V. alginolyticus 138-2, a marine halophilic bacterium, produced an extracellular amylase with a molecular weight of ca. 56,000. The analysis of the digestion products of soluble starch by thin layer chromatography(TLC) revealed that the extracellular amylase of V. alginolyticus 138-2 is a saccharifying-type alpha-amylase. The alpha-amylase activity of the culture supernatant of soluble starch was optimal at pH 6.0 and 45$^{\circ}C$. Ca2+ slightly increased the alpha-amylase activity, whereas Hg2+, An2+, Cu2+, Ni2+, Fe2+, and Mn2+inhibited the enzymatic activity. Alkylating thiol group agent, iodoacetic acid did not affect the alpha-amylase activity, but reduced thiol reagents such as dithiothreitol, cysteine, and beta-mercaptoethanol stimulated theenzymatic activity. On the other hand, even if V. alginolyticus 138-2 is a marine halophilic bacterium, its alpha-amylase activity was significantly inhibited by NaCl.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.245-249
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• 2007

We investigated the fibrinolytic and ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ inhibitory activity of 55 wild mushroom methanol extracts. Among them, 14 mushrooms showed fibrinolytic activity. In particular, Amanita virgineoides showed the greatest enzyme activity (3.9 plasmin units/ml) by a fibrin plate assay. The fibrinolytic activities of Suillus pictus and Polypolellus varius were 3.8 plasmin units, and the activity of Gomphus fujisanensis was 2.8 plasmin units. Leccinum extremiorientale and Xerocomus nigromaculatus had the same activity with 2.3 plasmin units. In a ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ inhibitory activity test, Lactarius sp. showed the greatest inhibitory activity at 97.3%. The ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ inhibitory activities of Clitocybe odora, Xerocomus nigromaculatus, Melanoleuca melaleuca, Suillus pictus, and Gyroporus castaneus were 84.3%, 77.9%, 74.6%, 68.7%, and 65.4%, respectively. According to the results, because Suillus pictus and Xerocomus nigromaculatus have strong fibrinolytic and ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ inhibitory activities, the two mushrooms will be used as materials for the development of new biofunctional food.