Adiposin 1

Adiposins showed a potent inhibitory activity against alpha-glucoside hydrolases such as salivary and pancreatic alpha-amylases, and intestinal disaccharidases in vivo. They suppressed the increase of the blood glucose level and the secretion of insulin in mice and rats which both had been fasted and then forced-fed on cooked corn starch, sucrose or maltose. The suppression of the increase in the body weight gains, and of the secretion of insulin and triglyceride in blood were observed in the experimental animals which were given diet containing adiposins. Hematological and histopathological examinations of animals treated with adiposins did not reveal any remarkable changes after a 3 months toxicity test. Adiposins did not show any intravenous acute toxicity in mice at dose levels (p.o.) less than 10 g/kg of body weight.

This review covers microbial secondary metabolites classified in the family of C7N aminocyclitols, a relatively new class of natural products that is increasingly gaining recognition due to their significant biomedical and agricultural uses. Their discovery and structure determinations, their biosynthetic origin, biological properties, chemical synthesis, as well as their further development for pharmaceutical uses are described. The literature from 1970 to July 2002 is reviewed, with 269 references cited.

Adiposin-1 and -2 exhibited potent inhibitory activities against alpha-amylase, human salivary alpha-amylase and disaccharidases isolated from porcine small intestine. The effect of adiposin-1 and -2 on hydrolysis of glucoamylase was non-competitive. Adiposin showed antimicrobial activities against some Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria belonging to Enterobacteriaceae, Some anaerobic bacteria and some phytopathogenic fungi, and showed a synergistic effect on the antibacterial activity with some maltooligosaccharides. However, these antibacterial activities were suppressed by addition of various other saccharides.