We investigated the inhibitory effects of four gastric proton pump inhibitors (PPIs): rabeprazole, a novel benzimidazole PPI, omeprazole, lansoprazole and AG-2000, on the urease activity of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). Their 50% inhibitory concentrations (I50s) were found to be 0.29, 5.4, 9.3 and 0.3 microM respectively. Rabeprazole and omeprazole were also potent inhibitors of Jack bean and Proteus mirabilis cellular ureases. The thioether derivative of rabeprazole, one of its metabolites, had no inhibitory effect on H. pylori urease, despite being reported as a more potent inhibitor of H. pylori growth than rabeprazole. The inhibitory effect of rabeprazole was prevented completely and reversed considerably by the addition of sulfhydryl compounds, such as beta-mercaptoethanol, glutathione and dithiothreitol. Moreover, the addition of beta-mercaptoethanol recovered the urease activity inhibited by rabeprazole. From these results, we expected that rabeprazole inhibited H. pylori urease activity by forming disulfide bonds between it and the active site of the enzyme.

Urease is an important virulence factor of pathogenicity of gastric Helicobacter pylori. The inhibition of H. pylori urease by the novel proton pump inhibitor, rabeprazole, was investigated kinetically. It was found to act as an irreversible noncompetitive inhibitor of the enzyme. The inhibitory potency of rabeprazole was dependent on the pH of reaction mixture and its Ki values were 0.14 microM (pH 5.0), 0.34 microM (pH 7.0) and 6.10 microM (pH 8.5). Progressive inactivation of urease by rabeprazole initially proceeded according to pseudo-first-order kinetics with respect to the remaining enzymatic activity at pH 7.0 and 37 degrees C, with a second-order rate constant of 0.0017 microM-1 s-1. When the inactivation half-life was plotted versus the reciprocal of the rabeprazole concentration, a straight line was obtained with a slope of -3.12. From an Arrhenius-plot of the temperature-dependence of the inactivation (over the range of 5-37 degrees C), an activation energy of 13.2 kcal/mol was calculated. Recovery of activity was incomplete for H. pylori urease inhibited by rabeprazole, suggesting that the rabeprazole-urease complex is very stable.

Silymarin, a commercial crude drug used as a hepatoprotective, was found to inhibit 53% of beta-glucuronidase activity at a final concentration of 0.8 mg/ml. Of three compounds A, silybin and C, which were isolated from silymarin, A and silybin potently inhibited the enzyme activity, followed by C. beta-Glucuronidases of intestinal bacteria, HGU-1 and HGU-2, and E. coli HB101 were noncompetitively inhibited by silybin. beta-Glucuronidase of the feces of a healthy human and of a human with colon cancer were also inhibited by silybin, silymarin and saccharic acid 1,4-lactone at 0.03-0.15 mg/ml. Silymarin and silybin protected the increase in enzyme activity in the serum of the rats treated with CCl4.

Three glucosyl-phenolic hydroxamates, 4-O-(beta-D-glucopyranosyl) benzohydroxamic acid, 4-O-(beta-D-glucopyranosyl)hippuric hydroxamic acid, and 3-[4-O-(beta-D-glucopyranosyl)phenyl]propionohydroxamic acid (Glc-PPHA), were hydrolyzed to their corresponding aglycones by beta-glucosidase of intestinal flora of rat without any major adverse hydrolysis in vitro. Inhibitory potency of these glucosyl-hydroxamates on urease was recovered to the same extent as that of the corresponding aglycone hydroxamates by preincubation for 2h with rat intestinal flora. p-Hydroxyphenylpropionohydroxamic acid inhibited noncompetitively jack-bean urease activity and its glucose-ligated form, Glc-PPHA inhibited it competitively. A single oral dose of Glc-PPHA tended to inhibit urease activity in proximal colon contents of rat at 6 h after administration (p = 0.06). After 14C-urea was orally administered to rat, 14CO2 was collected for to measure the ureolysis in vivo. Expired 14CO2 was limited to 40% by a single oral dose of Glc-PPHA during 6 h, and 75% of intestinal ureolysis was repressed during the first 1 h in the breath test.