Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Some plants contain molecules that inactivate the ribosomes by inhibiting the protein synthesis through their N-glycosidase enzymatic activity which are identified to ribosomal inactivating proteins (RIPs). RIPs are considered to be plant defenserelated proteins as they inhibit the multiplication and growth of several pathogenic virus, fungi, and bacteria. They selectively cleave a specific adenine residue from a highly conserved, surface-exposed, stem-loop (S/R loop) structure in the 28S rRNA of ribosomes. RIPs can be toxic or non-toxic and they have received a lot of attention in recent biomedical research because of their unique biological and enzymatic activities towards animal and human cells. In the present study, a unique ribosomal inactivating protein named annosin was isolated from the seeds of custard apple (Annona squamosa), purified by cation exchange column chromatography and gel filtration column chromatography. Confirmation was done by depurination assay followed by the structural characterization using ESI-MS and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The studies revealed that annosins are novel RIPs which exhibited antimicrobial, antimutagenic and anticancer activity. A remarkable feature of annosins is their antiviral activity against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This study suggested that annosins can be effectively used to treat cancer/AIDS.

Biography

Email: jannet_r@karunya.edu