Zerumbone Inhibits Urease Activity.

() produces urease in order to improve its settlement and growth in the human gastric epithelium. Urease inhibitors likely represent potentially powerful therapeutics for treating ; however, their instability and toxicity have proven problematic in human clinical trials. In this study, we investigate the ability of a natural compound extracted from Smith, zerumbone, to inhibit the urease activity of by formation of urease dimers, trimers, or tetramers. As an oxygen atom possesses stronger electronegativity than the first carbon atom bonded to it, in the zerumbone structure, the neighboring second carbon atom shows a relatively negative charge (δ) and the next carbon atom shows a positive charge (δ), sequentially. Due to this electrical gradient, it is possible that urease with its negative charges (such as thiol radicals) might bind to the β-position carbon of zerumbone. Our results show that zerumbone dimerized, trimerized, or tetramerized with both urease A and urease B molecules, and that this formation of complex inhibited urease activity. Although zerumbone did not affect either gene transcription or the protein expression of urease A and urease B, our study demonstrated that zerumbone could effectively dimerize with both urease molecules and caused significant functional inhibition of urease activity. In short, our findings suggest that zerumbone may be an effective urease inhibitor that may be suitable for therapeutic use in humans.