Quercetin as a tyrosinase inhibitor: Inhibitory activity, conformational change and mechanism

Quercetin, a flavonoid compound, was found to inhibit both monophenolase and diphenolase activities of tyrosinase, and its inhibition against diphenolase activity was in a reversible and competitive manner with an IC₅₀ value of (3.08±0.74)×10^-5molL^-1. Quercetin bound to tyrosinase driven by hydrophobic interaction, thereby resulted in a conformational change of tyrosinase and its intrinsic fluorescence quenching. Tyrosinase had one binding site for quercetin with the binding constant in the order of magnitude of 10⁴Lmol^-1. The molecular docking revealed that quercetin bound to the active site of tyrosinase and chelated a copper with the 3', 4'-dihydroxy groups. It can be deduced that the chelation may prevent the entrance of substrate and then inhibit the catalytic activity of tyrosinase. These findings may be helpful to understand the inhibition mechanism of quercetin on tyrosinase and functional research of quercetin in the treatment of pigmentation disorders.