Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 13, 2026
SA-β-Galactosidase-Based Screening Assay for the Identification of Senotherapeutic Drugs
Published on: June 28, 2019
A novel method for screening beta-glucosidase inhibitors
Sony Pandey1, Ayinampudi Sree, Soumya S Dash
1Environment and Sustainability Department, CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751013, India. sony@immt.res.in
Background:
Few beta-glucosidase inhibitors have so far been reported from microorganisms due to the practical difficulties in performing the inhibition tests and subsequent interpretation of results. In an effort to investigate marine microbial extracts for β-glucosidase inhibitors, we developed a new protocol, using esculin as substrate in an agar plate based assay, to screen a large number of microbial extracts in a short span of time.
Results:
With the new method, pale yellowish zones against the blackish brown background could be visually observed with more clarity in sample extracts where β-glucosidase inhibitor was present. The new method was compared with the closest existing method and established beyond doubt. This agar plate based procedure required about one hour for minimum 12 samples and the throughput increases with the size of the agar gel plate used.
Conclusions:
The new protocol was simple, rapid and effective in detecting beta-glucosidase inhibitors in microbial extracts.
