With the aim to find out structural features for the tyrosinase inhibitory activity, the inhibitory effects of seven paeonol analogues on the diphenolase of mushroom tyrosinase, the interaction between the inhibitors and the copper ions, and the antioxidant activity by DPPH radical were investigated. These paeonol analogues had suggested remarkable inhibition toward tyrosinase. Among them, paeonol (a) exhibited the strongest inhibition activity (IC 50 =0.21 mM) as well as showed potent scavenging activity on the DPPH radical. The inhibition kinetics revealed that paeonol (a) was a mixed-type inhibitor, 2′-hydroxy acetophenone (c), 4′-hydroxy acetophenone (d), and 2,4′-dihydroxy acetophenone (e) were competitive inhibitors, while acetophenone (b), 2′-methoxyacetophenone (f), and 4′-methoxy acetophenone (g) behaved as noncompetitive inhibitors. The maximum absorbing wavelengths of compounds (c), (d), and (e) showed different significant blue shifts, which could explain that they exhibited competitive inhibition by forming a chelate with the copper ions at the catalytic domain of the tyrosinase.Keywords: paeonol, acetophenone, tyrosinase inhibitor, DPPH radical, copper ions chelation *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: yuyanying@ncu.edu.cn
IntroductionTyrosinase (EC 1.14.18.1), known as polyphenol oxidase, is a multifunctional copper-containing metalloenzyme widely distributed in nature. It mainly catalyzes the o-hydroxylation of monophenols to the corresponding catechols, and the oxidation of monophenols to the corresponding o-quinones (Yoon et al., 2009). Consequently, a series of high reactive quinones are produced to initiate the pigmentation and excessive activation of tyrosinase can cause various dermatological disorders, such as Parkinson and other degenerative diseases (Asanuma et al., 2003).One of the reactions catalyzed by the tyrosinase is the oxidation of L-dopa to L-dopaquinone by utilising molecular oxygen. In addition, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and free radical-mediated reactions are associated with various diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, cancer, ageing, skin disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases (Pham-Huy et al., 2008). If the inhibitors we have designed can weaken the tyrosinase activity as well as scavenge ROS effectively, the production of melanin and the damage of ROS to our human beings will be decreased to a great extent. Hence, tyrosinase inhibitors have become increasingly important in cosmetic (Guevara and Pandya, 2001) and medicinal (Kanost et al., 2004) industry, the food industry (Lunadei et al., 2011) and agriculture (Guerrero and Rosell, 2005) to prevent hyperpigmentation.In recent years, a large number of naturally occurring and synthetic tyrosinase inhibitors have been reported. There are many tyrosinase inhibitors, such as hydroquinone (Garcia and Fulton Jr, 1996), ascorbic acid (Kameyama et al., 1996), arbutin (Nakajima et al., 1998), kojic acid (Mishima et al., 1994, aromatic aldehydes (Jimenez et al., 2001;, aromatic acids (Chen et al., 2005;Si et a...