NTU scientists find rare enzyme in common plant in Singapore
Scientists in Singapore have made a rare discovery in a common local plant whose blue flowers are used for food colouring.
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have extracted a type of enzyme called a ligase from the Clitoria ternatea, or the blue butterfly pea plant.
There are only four known ligases in the world, including the new enzyme.
Ligases are important in the human body as they “glue” amino acids together to eventually form proteins, which are the building blocks for all cells in the body.
The scientists said their work could lead to better understanding about how the human body forms cells, as well as how to repair mistakes that lead to diseases such as cancer.
They also found that the new enzyme – which they named butelase-1 after the plant’s Malay name, bunga telang – glued amino acids together about 10,000 times faster than the other three ligases, and did so without creating any by-products.
Their research was published last month in Nature Chemical Biology, one of the prestigious Nature publishing group’s international scientific journals.
So far, other scientists have written four commentaries in various journals about the possibilities unlocked by the discovery.
Professor James Tam, the NTU team’s lead scientist, said the enzyme will be useful, for example, in creating peptide drugs for disease treatment.
Peptides are short chains of amino acids and drugs created from them are safer than synthetic ones as they are found naturally in the human body.
“But the peptide drugs are not very stable. Their structure is like a string, and the stomach degrades them by chopping them at both ends,” said Prof Tam, who is also director of NTU’s Drug Discovery Centre.
“But if we can glue the ends together using the enzyme, then the drugs may become more stable.”
The scientists found that the butterfly pea plant itself uses the enzyme to form circular chains of proteins, which enable the plant to survive extreme cold and heat.
The plant is commonly used as a herb to boost memory and as an anti-depressant. Its blue flowers are also used for food colouring such as that found in pulut inti, a Malay glutinous rice dessert.
The NTU team’s research took about a year and is part of a larger programme led by Prof Tam that analyses active ingredients in food and herbal medicine. The programme was awarded $10 million by the National Research Foundation, and its goals include finding new ways to ensure the safety of plant-based products.
Source: Asia One
Published: 25 Oct 2014
Category: Technology & Devices, Top Story
