Kinetic and computational molecular docking simulation study of novel kojic acid derivatives as anti-tyrosinase and antioxidant agents.

The novel kojic acid derivatives KAD1 and KAD2 have been demonstrated that they exhibited potent anti-melanogenesis activity in our previous report. In this study, we further study the inhibitory mechanism on mushroom tyrosinase. The inhibitory types of both KADs on diphenolase were classified as mixed type based on the results of the kinetic model. The interaction between KADs and tyrosinase was illustrated by fluorescence quenching, molecular docking and copper chelate activity. The KADs were also evaluated with respect to their antioxidant activities by DPPH and ABTS+ assays. The results showed that KADs have more potent antioxidant activities than kojic acid. Our study could provide new ideas for the development of new anti-tyrosinase and antioxidant agents.