Firefly luciferase is a reporter gene, commonly used when determining the influence of selected compounds on transcriptional activity of genes and its expression is determined by the bioluminescent reaction of the protein product. Expressed protein can be influenced by studied compounds, mostly by inhibition or stabilisation, which can lead to false-positive results. Sea pansy luciferase, which is commonly used in combination with firefly luciferase, is its important alternative. Isoflavonoids are one of the groups of natural compounds, often studied in reporter gene assays with firefly luciferase, so it is important to evaluate their influence on firefly luciferase.
In our thesis we focused on 11 structurally diverse isoflavonoids and evaluated their influence on the activity of firefly and sea pansy luciferase. At first we evaluated potential interference of firefly luciferase in the form of inhibition with QSAR programme InterPred, which predicted high likelihood of inhibition for 7 out of 11 isoflavonoids. By using a new, method in vitro, based on luciferase assay of lysate of cell line AR-EcoScreen, we evaluated inhibition of both reporter proteins. Firstly, we tested compounds in 1, 10 and 100 µM concentration, which was followed by testing at additional concentrations, in the case of inhibition, for the determination of IC50. Seven out of 11 isoflavonoids inhibited firefly luciferase, which in comparison with the results of InterPred confirmed its correct prediction of interference. None of the isoflavonoids inhibited sea pansy luciferase in vitro. The most potent inhibitors were also tested in a modified in-vitro assay for their potential thermal stabilisation of firefly luciferase. We cannot confirm that obtained values are the consequence of stabilisation, due to shortcomings of the method. Firefly luciferase inhibition was further explored with molecular docking, which confirmed that active isoflavonoids bind to luciferin pocket, followed by determination of structure-activity relationship for the active isoflavonoids. With molecular docking we also confirmed, that the selected isoflavonoids do not inhibit sea pansy luciferase.
We confirmed inhibitory activity of some isoflavonoids, which can due to stabilisation explain previously reported higher responses in cell lines with firefly luciferase. When studying the influence of isoflavonoids on transcriptional activity of selected genes it would be more appropriate to use sea pansy luciferase as reporter gene.
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