What is "kifunensine"

n. (context organic compound English) An alkaloid (a cyclic oxamide of mannojirimycin) produced by the actinomycete ''Kitasatosporia kifunense''

Kifunensine is an alkaloid originally isolated from Kitasatosporia kifunense, an actinobacterium (formerly called an actinomycete). It is a neutral, stable compound.

Kifunensine is a potent inhibitor of the mannosidase I enzyme and is primarily used in cell culture to make high mannose glycoproteins. Inside a cell, it prevents endoplasmic reticulum mannosidase I (ERM1) from trimming mannose residues from precursor glycoproteins. Kifunensine shows no inhibitory action against mannosidase II or the endoplasmic reticulum alpha-mannosidase, and it weakly inhibits arylmannosidase.

When incorporated in cell culture media, kifunensine has shown no significant impact on cell growth or glycoprotein production yield.

Kifunensine has shown potential for treatment of sarcoglycanopathies and lysosomal storage disorders.