Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.2.1.17 (lysozyme)
 21,489 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A metalloendopeptidase (MEP) isolated from rabbit liver microsomes with substrate specificity for peptides containing Arg at the P1 and P4 positions has recently proved to be identical to soluble angiotensin-binding protein present in the cytosol. Here we describe the peptide-degrading specificity of MEP, determined using various bioactive peptides and novel fluorogenic substrates for the enzyme. MEP degraded oligopeptides, including bradykinin, alpha-neoendorphin, bovine adrenal medulla dodecapeptide, substance P, bombesin, neurotensin, and alpha-endorphin, but not polypeptides such as reduced lysozyme and histone H4, hence, MEP probably belongs to the family of endo-oligopeptidases. It cleaved most preferentially at the -Phe-Ser- bond of bradykinin (kcat/Km = 2.8 x 10(4) M-1.S-1) but did not cleave high molecular weight and low molecular weight kininogens, the precursors of bradykinin. MEP did not cleave angiotensin I, dynorphin A 1-13, somatostatin, and luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone, some of which are good substrates for metalloendopeptidase-24.15, metalloendopeptidase-24.16, N-arginine dibasic convertase, and yeast endopeptidase-24.15 related peptidase. An active site-directed inhibitor of metalloendopeptidase-24.15, N-[1-(R,S)-carboxyl-3-phenylpropyl]-Ala-Ala-Phe-p-aminobenzoate also had no effects on the amidolytic activity of MEP. Based on the cleavage sites of bioactive peptides and processing sites of vitamin K-dependent proproteins, intramolecularly quenched fluorogenic peptide substrates were newly synthesized. Among the thirteen substrates used, the most reactive was 2-aminobenzoyl-Ala-Arg-Val-Arg-Arg-Ala- Asn-Ser-2,4-dinitroanilinoethylamide (kcat/Km = 9.3 x 10(5) M-1.S-1). An angiotensin antagonist, [Sar1, Ala8]-angiotensin II, inhibited hydrolysis of the substrate by MEP in a competitive manner (Kl = 7.6 microM). MEP cleaved oligopeptides even on the carboxyl side of proline residue and these peptides are resistant to hydrolysis by the cytosol-derived proteasome, therefore MEP may participate in the catabolism of oligopeptides in the cytosol, together with other endo-oligopeptidases.
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PMID:Substrate specificity of rabbit liver metalloendopeptidase and its new fluorogenic peptide substrates. 857 4

The extreme acidothermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus harbors a membrane-associated protein kinase activity. Its solubilization and stabilization required detergents, suggesting that this activity resides within an integral membrane protein. The archaeal protein kinase utilized purine nucleotides as phosphoryl donors in vitro. A noticeable preference for nucleotide triphosphates over nucleotide diphosphates and for adenyl nucleotides over the corresponding guanyl ones was observed. The molecular mass of the solubilized, partially purified enzyme was estimated to be approximately 125 kDa by gel filtration chromatography. Catalytic activity resided in a polypeptide with an apparent molecular mass of approximately 67 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Challenges with several exogenous substrates revealed the protein kinase to be relatively selective. Only casein, histone H4, reduced carboxyamidomethylated and maleylated lysozyme, and a peptide modeled after myosin light chains (KKRAARATSNVFA) were phosphorylated to appreciable levels in vitro. All of the aforementioned substrates were phosphorylated on threonine residues, while histone H4 was phosphorylated on serine as well. Substitution of serine for the phosphoacceptor threonine in the myosin light chain peptide produced a noticeably inferior substrate. The protein kinase underwent autophosphorylation on threonine and was relatively insensitive to a set of known inhibitors of "eukaryotic" protein kinases.
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PMID:The archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus contains a membrane-associated protein kinase activity that preferentially phosphorylates threonine residues in vitro. 1085 77

Antibacterial peptides were isolated from human peripheral granulocytes of a healthy donor who had been treated with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) and cortisol. Peptides were solubilized in acidified chloroform/methanol, and partitioned in chloroform/methanol/water. Water- soluble polypeptides were separated by cation-exchange and reversed-phase chromatography. Several previously characterized antibacterial polypeptides were identified; defensins 1-3, defensin 4, lysozyme, eosinophil cationic protein, and calgranulin A. In addition, several histone fragments were isolated and exhibited activity against the Gram- positive bacterium Bacillus megaterium strain Bm11. These fragments included two C-terminal fragments of histone H1A, three C-terminal fragments of histone H1D, one fragment of histone H1B, and two fragments of histone H4. The molecular masses of both histone H1A fragments, as determined by electrospray (ES) MS, were 270 Da higher than those calculated from their amino acid sequences. The two histone H1A fragments corresponded to Lys152-Lys222 (7527 +/- 1 Da) and Lys167-Lys222 (6023 +/- 1 Da). Tandem MS (MS/MS) of the 7.5 kDa and 6.0 kDa fragments indicated that the post-translational modification is on Lys222, the epsilon-amino group of which was conjugated with the alpha-carboxyl group of the tripeptide Arg-Gly-Gly. This finding was substantiated by digestion of the 7.5-kDa polypeptide with trypsin and analysis of the resulting peptides by ES MS and MS/MS. The tripeptide Arg-Gly-Gly corresponded uniquely to the three C-terminal residues of ubiquitin, demonstrating the presence of ubiquitinated histone H1A.
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PMID:Antibacterial peptides in stimulated human granulocytes: characterization of ubiquitinated histone H1A. 1185 9

The highly conserved, ubiquitously expressed, zinc finger protein CTCF is involved in enhancer blocking, a mechanism crucial for shielding genes from illegitimate enhancer effects. Interestingly, CTCF-binding sites are often flanked by thyroid hormone response elements (TREs), as at the chicken lysozyme upstream silencer. Here we identify a similar composite site positioned upstream of the human c-myc gene. For both elements, we demonstrate that thyroid hormone abrogates enhancer blocking. Relief of enhancer blocking occurs even though CTCF remains bound to the lysozyme chromatin. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis of the lysozyme upstream region revealed that histone H4 is acetylated at the CTCF-binding site. Loss of enhancer blocking by the addition of T3 led to increased histone acetylation, not only at the CTCF site, but also at the enhancer and the promoter. Thus, when TREs are adjacent to CTCF-binding sites, thyroid hormone can regulate enhancer blocking, thereby providing a new property for what was previously thought to be constitutive enhancer shielding by CTCF.
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PMID:Thyroid hormone-regulated enhancer blocking: cooperation of CTCF and thyroid hormone receptor. 1266 Jan 64

The aim of the present study was to investigate responses in Dybowski's frogs (Rana dybowskii) exposed to bacteria, using proteomic and transcriptomic approaches. Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were used as representative Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, respectively, in an infectious challenge model. Frog skin and skin secretions were collected and protein expression in infected frogs compared to control frogs by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, silver staining, and image analysis. Proteins that demonstrated differential expression were analysed by mass spectrometry and identified by searching protein databases. More than 180 protein spots demonstrated differential expression in E. coli- or S. aureus-challenged groups and, of these, more than 55 spots were up- or down-regulated at least sixfold, post-infection. Proteins with a potential function in the immune response were identified, such as stathmin 1a, annexin A1, superoxide dismutase A, C-type lectin, lysozyme, antimicrobial peptides, cofilin-1-B, mannose receptor, histone H4, prohormone convertase 1, carbonyl reductase 1 and some components of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) signalling pathway. These molecules are potential candidates for further investigation of immune mechanisms in R. dybowskii; in particular, TLR-mediated responses, which might be activated in frogs exposed to pathogenic bacteria as part of innate immune defence, but which might also impact on adaptive immunity to infection.
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PMID:Analysis of skin and secretions of Dybowski's frogs (Rana dybowskii) exposed to Staphylococcus aureus or Escherichia coli identifies immune response proteins. 2461 15