ABSTRACT
The first set of competitive inhibitors of molt inhibiting hormone (MIH) has been developed using the effective approaches such as Hip-Hop, virtual screening and manual alterations. Moreover, the conserved residues at 71 and 72 positions in the molt inhibiting hormone is known to be significant for selective inhibition of ecdysteroidogenesis; thus, the information from mutation and solution structure were used to generate common pharmacophore features. The geometry of the final six-feature pharmacophore was also found to be consistent with the homology-modeled MIH structures from various other decapod crustaceans. The Hypo-1, comprising six features hypothesis was carefully selected as a best pharmacophore model for virtual screening created on the basis of rank score and cluster processes. The hypothesis was validated and the database was virtually screened using this 3D query and the compounds were then manually altered to enhance the fit value. The hits obtained were further filtered for drug-likeness, which is expressed as physicochemical properties that contribute to favorable ADME/Tox profiles to eliminate the molecules exhibit toxicity and poor pharmacokinetics. In conclusion, the higher fit values of CI-1 (4.6), CI-4 (4.9) and CI-7 (4.2) in conjunction with better pharmacokinetic profile made these molecules practically helpful tool to increase production by accelerating molt in crustaceans. The use of feeding sub-therapeutic dosages of these growth enhancers can be very effectively implemented and certainly turn out to be a vital part of emerging nutritional strategies for economically important crustacean livestock.
Subject(s)
Amino Acid Sequence , Animals , Arthropod Proteins/antagonists & inhibitors , Arthropod Proteins/chemistry , Arthropod Proteins/metabolism , Binding, Competitive , Crustacea/metabolism , Drug Design , Guanylate Cyclase/antagonists & inhibitors , Guanylate Cyclase/chemistry , Guanylate Cyclase/metabolism , Invertebrate Hormones/antagonists & inhibitors , Invertebrate Hormones/chemistry , Invertebrate Hormones/metabolism , Models, Molecular , Molecular Sequence Data , Sequence Homology, Amino AcidABSTRACT
The effect of crustacean hyperglycemic hormone (CHH) was investigated on the hemolymph of Chasmagnathus granulata, a meso-supralitoral crab from southern Brazil. Serum glucose increased significantly (P®0.05) after incubation of total hemolymph in the presence of the eyestalk extract of a member of the same species. Also glucose uptake from blood serum, not affected by eyestalk extract (P¼0.05) was observed after incubation of total hemolymph in the presence of glucose.The results that the hemolymph may be a target tissue of CHH and that this hormone may act by mobilizing carbohydrate reserves possibly from hematocytes.