The inhibition activity of quercetin is not significantly altered if the hydroxyl at position 3 is conjugated with glucose to generate isoquercitrin, but it loses half of its potency if this position is conjugated with rhamnose, as in quercitrin (da Silva et al., 2012a). Structural analysis from docking studies (Fig. 3) showed hydrogen bond (H-bond) interaction

between ARG-L and the substituent at the 3-positions present in isoquercitrin (quercetin-3-O-β-glucoside) and quercitrin (quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside) that inhibit ARG-L by a noncompetitive mechanism, where an inhibitor binds to both the enzyme-substrate Caspase-independent apoptosis complex or to the free enzyme. The higher docking energies were observed just for these 2 compounds ( Table 2). In C-glucosides, such as orientin (luteolin-8-C-glucoside) and isoorientin (luteolin-6-C-glucoside), the glucoside group does not show any interaction with ARG-L residues, and both are uncompetitive inhibitors which bind exclusively to the enzyme–substrate complex, resulting in an inactivated enzyme–substrate–inhibitor complex. The aglycones fisetin and luteolin show common H-bonds with residues Asp245 and Ser150, and quercetin is a unique compound that shows H-bonding with His28 and Glu197. These three aglycones showed mixed Selleckchem RO4929097 inhibition

of ARG-L. In conclusion, the three mechanisms of inhibition shown here for these compounds were closely related to the absence or presence of a glucoside in the 3-O-glucoside position, where mixed and noncompetitive inhibition are observed, respectively, while the C-glucoside showed an uncompetitive inhibition. There are now multiple targets that have been described for the leishmanicidal action of flavonoids. Quercetin inhibits ARG-L and ribonucleotide reductase (da Silva et al., 2012a and Sen et al., 2008). Quercetin induces cell death by increasing GBA3 ROS (reactive oxygen species) and causing mitochondrial dysfunction in L. (L.) amazonensis ( Fonseca-Silva, Inacio, Canto-Cavalheiro, & Almeida-Amaral, 2011).

Luteolin and quercetin promote apoptosis mediated by topoisomerase II, resulting in kinetoplast DNA cleavage in L. (L.) donovani ( Mittra et al., 2000). The E  docking ( Table 2) results support the IC50 ( Table 1) data obtained from the aglycones and glycoside flavonoids. The only exception was that 7,8-dihydroxyflavone had an IC50 lower than those of kaempferol and galangin. Docking suggested interactions between the flavonoids and the amino acids Asp137, Asp141, Asp243, Asp245 and His139 (ARG-L numbering) that are involved in metal bridge MnA2+-MnB2+ coordination in the active site of arginase ( Kanyo et al., 1996). Another important interaction can be attributed to His154, which is a conserved amino acid involved in substrate binding ( Ash, 2004). His 139 and His 154 showed hydrophobic intermolecular interactions with several flavonoids ( Fig. 3).