Myriocin, also known as antibiotic ISP-1 and thermozymocidin, is a

non-proteinogenic amino acid In biochemistry, non-coded or non-proteinogenic amino acids are distinct from the 22 proteinogenic amino acids (21 in eukaryotesplus formylmethionine in eukaryotes with prokaryote organelles like mitochondria) which are naturally encoded in the ge ...

derived from certain

thermophilic A thermophile is an organism—a type of extremophile—that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between . Many thermophiles are archaea, though they can be bacteria or fungi. Thermophilic eubacteria are suggested to have been among the earl ...

fungi. Myriocin is a very potent inhibitor of serine palmitoyltransferase, the first step in

sphingosine Sphingosine (2-amino-4-trans-octadecene-1,3-diol) is an 18-carbon amino alcohol with an unsaturated hydrocarbon chain, which forms a primary part of sphingolipids, a class of cell membrane lipids that include sphingomyelin, an important phospholip ...

biosynthesis. Due to this property, it is used in biochemical research as a tool for depleting cells of

sphingolipid Sphingolipids are a class of lipids containing a backbone of sphingoid bases, a set of aliphatic amino alcohols that includes sphingosine. They were discovered in brain extracts in the 1870s and were named after the mythological sphinx because ...

s. Myriocin was shown to inhibit the proliferation of an

IL-2 The Ilyushin Il-2 (Russian language, Russian: Илью́шин Ил-2) is a Ground attack aircraft, ground-attack plane that was produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the World War II, Second World War. The word ''shturmovík'' (C ...

-dependent mouse cytotoxic

T cell A T cell is a type of lymphocyte. T cells are one of the important white blood cells of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell r ...

line. Myriocin possesses

immunosuppressant Immunosuppressive drugs, also known as immunosuppressive agents, immunosuppressants and antirejection medications, are drugs that inhibit or prevent activity of the immune system. Classification Immunosuppressive drugs can be classified in ...

activity. It is reported to be 10- to 100-fold more potent than

ciclosporin Ciclosporin, also spelled cyclosporine and cyclosporin, is a calcineurin inhibitor, used as an immunosuppressant medication. It is a natural product. It is taken orally or intravenously for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn's disease, ...

. The

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

drug

fingolimod Fingolimod, sold under the brand name Gilenya, is an immunomodulating medication, mostly used for treating multiple sclerosis (MS). Fingolimod is a sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor modulator, which sequesters lymphocytes in lymph nodes, preven ...

was derived from myriocin by using

structure–activity relationship The structure–activity relationship (SAR) is the relationship between the chemical structure of a molecule and its biological activity. This idea was first presented by Crum-Brown and Fraser in 1865. The analysis of SAR enables the determination o ...

studies to determine the parts of the molecule important to its activity.

References

{{Lysophospholipid signaling Antibiotics Amino acids Beta hydroxy acids Vicinal diols