ev-Glucosidase is the general term for the hydrolases of a-glucoside, and a-glucosidase in the small intestine plays a physiologically important role for the digestion process of dietary carbohydrate. The inhibitors of or-glucosidase, in consequence, could retard the use of dietary carbohydrates to suppress postprandial hyperglycemia. or-Glucosidase inhibitors such as acarbose, miglitol, and vo...

In the course of our characterization studies on anti-obese and antidiabetogenic principles in medicinal foodstuffs, we found that the methanolic extract from the stems of Salacia chinensis (Hippocerateaceae) showed potent anti-hyperglycemic effects in oral sucrose or maltose-loaded rats, inhibitory effects on intestinal alpha-glucosidase, rat lens aldose reductase, formation of Amadori compoun...

Glycogen storage disease type II (GSD II/glycogenosis type II/Pompe's disease/acid maltase deficiency) is caused by the deficiency of lysosomal alpha-glucosidase resulting in lysosomal accumulation of glycogen. The disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait and is clinically heterogeneous. Early and late onset phenotypes are distinguished. Insight in the molecular nature of the lysoso...

Catalytic properties of two glucoamylases, AmyC and AmyD, without starch binding domains from Rhizopus oryzae strain 99-880 are determined using heterologously expressed enzyme purified to homogeneity. AmyC and AmyD demonstrate pH optima of 5.5 and 6.0, respectively, nearly one unit higher than the Rhizopus AmyA glucoamylase enzyme. Optimal initial activities are at 60 and 50 °C for AmyC and Am...

Post-prandial hyperglycemia still remains a problem in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Of all available anti-diabetic drugs, α-glucosidase inhibitors seem to be the most effective in reducing post-prandial hyperglycemia. We conducted a review analyzing the clinical efficacy and safety of α-glucosidase inhibitors, both alone and in combination with other anti-diabetic drugs, with res...

In spite of the progress in the treatment of lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs), in some of these disorders the available therapies show limited efficacy and a need exists to identify novel therapeutic strategies. We studied the combination of enzyme replacement and enzyme enhancement by pharmacological chaperones in Pompe disease (PD), a metabolic myopathy caused by the deficiency of the lysoso...

Glucosidase II is an ER heterodimeric enzyme that cleaves sequentially the two innermost alpha-1,3-linked glucose residues from N-linked oligosaccharides on nascent glycoproteins. This processing allows the binding and release of monoglucosylated (Glc(1)Man(9)GlcNAc(2)) glycoproteins with calnexin and calreticulin, the lectin-like chaperones of the endoplasmic reticulum. We have isolated two cD...

Pompe disease is a lysosomal storage disorder characterized by muscle weakness and cardiomyopathy. It shows a broad variability regarding the clinical severity as well as the age of onset. In the past, two different recombinant enzyme preparations have been developed for the treatment of Pompe patients: alpha-glucosidase, produced in rabbit milk, and alpha-glucosidase, produced in Chinese hamst...

α-Glucosidase (extinction coefficient 3.2.1.20) is a primary carbohydrate metabolizing enzyme that acts on the 1-4 associated α-glucose residues. The inhibition of α-glucosidase slows down the process of carbohydrate digestion and avoids postprandial hyperglycemia, which is a major cause of chronic diabetes-associated complication. This study was designed to evaluate the binding capacity of iso...