Effective Imitation: New chitinase inhibitors
Monday, March 8, 2010 - 11:28
in Biology & Nature
(PhysOrg.com) -- The chitin-degrading enzymes known as chitinases are not just important to insects with chitin shells and to their predators, they also seem to be involved in the establishment of parasites in the human body and in asthmatic diseases. An international team led by Stephen G. Withers has now developed a novel chitinase inhibitor. As the researchers report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the compound imitates the structure of an intermediate formed in the enzymatic degradation of chitin.