Investigation of the effects of rhizome atractylodis macrocephalae on yeast prion [PSI+ ]was conducted in this study .Liquid culture containing rhizome atractylodis macrocephalae aqueous extracts was applied to evaluate its therapeutic effects preliminarily .Then yeast replica plating together with Semi Denaturing Detergent Agarose Gel Electrophoresis com-bined with western blot were used to further confirm the results .It's showed that the cure rate of aqueous extracts of rhizome atractylodis macrocephalae on yease prion [PSI+ ]could reach 6% .

In order to quantify the curing effects of phenanthridine on yeast prion, we introduced semi-denaturing agarose gel electrophoresis and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching techniques to quantify the curing effects of phenanthridine on yeast prion at the protein and cellular levels with the [PSI+] yeast strain expressing GFP-Sup35p (NGMC). The results showed that these two approaches could precisely quantify the curing effects of phenanthridine on [PSI+] cells. After a treatment for 1 through 5 days with phenanthridine, the curing rates of [PSI+] cells were 0%, 0%, 51.7%, 87.5% and 94.4%, respectively. Meanwhile, we quantified the sizes of Sup35p polymers in phenanthridine induced pink phenotype cells. The aggregation status in 1-2 days phenanthridine treated cells were similar to those in [PSI+] cells, while the aggregation status in 3-5 days phenanthridine treated cells were similar to those in [psi(-)] cells.
Computer Simulation ; Models, Biological ; Peptide Termination Factors ; metabolism ; Phenanthridines ; pharmacology ; Prions ; drug effects ; genetics ; metabolism ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae ; cytology ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins ; metabolism