ABSTRACT
Royal jelly has been widely used as a health supplement worldwide. However, royal jelly has been implicated in allergic reactions, and we developed a water-soluble royal jelly (WSRJ) without the allergy inducing protein. In this study, we aimed to identify the anti-melanogenic efficacy of WSRJ. B16F1 melanoma cells were first treated with 10 nM α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH) and then with various doses of WSRJ. In addition, we investigated the mRNA and protein expression of melanogenesis-related genes such as tyrosinase, tyrosinase related protein-1 (TRP-1) and TRP-2 by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. WSRJ directly inhibited tyrosinase and cellular tyrosinase activity, which decreased melanin synthesis in α-MSH stimulated B16F1 melanoma cells a level comparable to that observed with arbutin. WSRJ decreased the mRNA and protein expressions of tyrosinase, TRP-1, and TRP-2, which was comparable to that observed with arbutin. WSRJ has strong anti-melanogenic activity, which invoice direct inhibition of tyrosinase enzyme activity and suppression of expression of melanogenesis related genes. Results from this study suggests that WSRJ is a potential candidate for the treatment of skin pigmentation.
ABSTRACT
One of the main challenges in the development of new analytical platforms for ultrasensitive bioaffinity detection is jointly achieving a wide dynamic range in target analyte concentration, especially for approaches that rely on multistep processes as a part of the signal amplification mechanism. In this paper, a new surface-based sandwich assay is introduced for the direct detection of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), an important biomarker for cardiac failure, at concentrations ranging from 1 aM to 500 nM. This was achieved using nanoparticle-enhanced surface plasmon resonance (SPR) where a DNA aptamer is immobilized on a chemically modified gold surface in conjunction with the specific adsorption of antiBNP coated gold nanocubes in the presence of the biomarker target. A concentration detection range greater than eleven orders of magnitude was achieved through dynamic control of only the secondary nanoparticle probe concentration. Furthermore, detection at low attomolar concentrations was also achieved in undiluted human serum.
