Frontiers in Chemistry (May 2022)

Visual Sensing of β-Glucosidase From Intestinal Fungus in the Generation of Cytotoxic Icarisid II

  • Gang Wang,
  • Fei Yan,
  • Fei Yan,
  • Yufei Wang,
  • Yingping Liu,
  • Jingnan Cui,
  • Zhenlong Yu,
  • Lei Feng,
  • Tony D. James,
  • Tony D. James,
  • Chao Wang,
  • Ying Kong

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2022.919624
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10

Abstract

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β-Glucosidase (β-Glc) is an enzyme capable of the selective hydrolysis of the β-glycosidic bond of glycosides and glycans containing glucose. β-Glc expressed by intestinal microbiota has attracted increasing levels of interest, due to their important roles for the metabolism of exogenous substances in the gut. Using the 2-((6-hydroxy-2,3-dihydro-1H-xanthen-4-yl)methylene)malononitrile fluorophore (DXM-OH, λem 636 nm) and the recognition group β-Glucose, an enzymatic activatable turn-on fluorescent probe (DXM-Glc) was developed for the selective and sensitive sensing of β-Glc. In addition, DXM-Glc could be used to sense endogenous β-Glc in living fungal cells. Using DXM-Glc, Pichia terricola M2 was identified as a functional intestinal fungus with β-Glc expression. P. terricola M2 could transform the flavone glycoside Icariin to Icariside Ⅱ efficiently, which confirmed the metabolism of glycosides in the gut mediated by fungi. Furthermore, Icariside Ⅱ could inhibit the proliferation of human endometrial cancer cells (RL 95-2 and ishikawa) significantly, suggesting the metabolic activation of Icariin by intestinal fungi in vivo. Therefore, DXM-Glc as a probe for β-Glc provided a novel technique for the investigation of the metabolism of bioactive substances by intestinal microbiota.

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