In this study, an effective and portable method for enzyme activity detection and inhibitory activity evaluation was developed based on the alkaline phosphatase (ALP)-mediated reaction in a personal glucose meter (PGM). In this method, ALP catalyzes the hydrolysis of substrate amifostine (WR-2721) to produce ethanethiol (WR-1065), which can trigger the reduction of ferricyanide (K3[Fe(CN)6]), an electron transfer mediator in glucose test strips, to ferrocyanide ([K4Fe(CN)6]) and generate a PGM-detectable signal. Thus, WR-1065 can be directly quantified by a PGM as simply as detecting glucose in blood. After being systematically optimized, the method was applied to evaluate the inhibitory activity of ten small-molecule compounds and six Cordyceps sinensis (CS) extracts on ALP. The results showed that adenosine-5-monophosphate and theophylline had high inhibitory activity, but two CS extracts have promotion potency on ALP with the values of -20.7 ± 1.3% and -46.6 ± 2.1%, respectively. Moreover, the binding sites and modes of small-molecule compounds to ALP were investigated by molecular docking, while a new substrate competitor with theoretically good inhibitory activity against ALP was designed by scaffold hopping. Finally, the accuracy of the PGM method for enzyme activity detection was assessed by detecting ALP from milk samples, and the recovery ranged from 87.7% to 116.9%. These results indicate that it is feasible to evaluate enzyme activity and the inhibitory activity of small-molecule compounds and CS extracts on ALP using a PGM based on ALP-mediated reaction. Graphical abstract.
Keywords: Alkaline phosphatase activity; Inhibitory activity; Molecular docking; Personal glucose meter.