Published Paper Details:

Agmatine is the product of arginine decarboxylation and can be hydrolyzed by agmatinase to putrescine, the precursor for biosynthesis of higher polyamines, spermidine, and spermine. Besides being an intermediate in polyamine metabolism, recent findings indicate that agmatine may play important regulatory roles in mammals. Agmatine, 4-aminobutyl guanidine, has recently been found in various mammalian organs and is thought to act as a neurotransmitter or neuromodulatory agent. The present study is to do a review on agmatine and its synthesized analogues till now for agmatinase inhibitory action. Agmatinase is a binuclear manganese metalloenzyme and belongs to the ureohydrolase superfamily that includes arginase, formiminoglutamase, and proclavaminate amidinohydrolase. Compared with a wealth of structural information available for arginases, no three dimensional structure of agmatinase has been reported. Agmatinase is an enzyme which blocks the mammalian agmatine which is ultimately responsible for the agmatine degradation in the body. Agmatinase is an enzyme which regulates the half life of agmatine in the brain. Hence a selective inhibitor of brain agmatinase is required. Several derivatives of agmatine are synthesized previously for agmatinase inhibitory activity but none of them showed selective inhibition. PZC (Piperazinecarboxamidine) is a derivative of agmatine or guanidine is expected to show selective inhibition of human agmatinase. A detailed review is carried out in order to understand the agmatinase inhibitor.