Biochemical target tests

Many of the natural compounds isolated and characterised in the past underwent a very limited biological profiling, i.e. they were usually tested only in antibacterial and/or antifungal assays. This applies particularly to the thousands of natural products isolated and characterised by academic groups. Testing of such compounds in biochemical target-based assays or in modern phenotypical cell-based assays should reveal new biological activities and many new applications. 

Experiment 2. Cholinesterase as a sensor on the cell surface A target of the allelochemical may also be a surface sensor-cholinesterase (Fig. 10). If after the staining with Red analogue of Ellman reagent the blue colour is absent in the allelochemical treated microspore, possible target is the enzyme (Roshchina, 2001a,b) as for alkaloid berberine tested. If after the treatment by the test allelochemical, the colour is absent or light, the compound inhibits the enzyme (also see biochemical assay in Chapter 11). 

For testing the biological activity of such a large number of molecules, development of fast assays and with a read-out as simple as possible is essential. These assays can be performed on molecular targets (biochemical assays) or target cell (cell-based assays). 

---