Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.4.21.1 (chymotrypsin)
 10,938 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Protein C activation by thrombin is significantly accelerated by the endothelial cell surface protein thrombomodulin, Factor Va, or its light chain. In this study we have compared the activation of protein C in the presence of either cofactor and examined the possibility that thrombomodulin and Factor Va-light chain act together to regulate protein C activation by thrombin. At all concentrations of protein C used, thrombomodulin was 20 times more efficient than Factor Va-light chain in accelerating protein C activation by thrombin. Protein C treated with chymotrypsin to remove the amino-terminal 41 amino acids that contain the gamma-carboxyglutamyl residues was activated by the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex at an identical rate to native protein C, whereas the modified protein C was activated by Factor Va-light chain and thrombin at only 5% of the rate obtained by using native protein C. Increasing concentrations of Factor Va-light chain, greater than or equal to 30 nM, inhibited thrombin-thrombomodulin catalyzed protein C activation with complete inhibition observed at 90 nM Factor Va-light chain. On the other hand, increasing thrombomodulin concentrations did not inhibit protein C activation by Factor Va-light chain and thrombin. These reactions in solution mimic, in part, those obtained on endothelial cells where protein C lacking the gamma-carboxyglutamyl domain is activated poorly and Factor Va-light chain at concentrations greater than 50 nM inhibited the activation of native protein C. The results of this study suggest that thrombomodulin and Factor Va-light chain may act in concert to regulate protein C activation by thrombin.
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PMID:Effects of thrombomodulin and coagulation Factor Va-light chain on protein C activation in vitro. 632 39

Binding Ca2+ to a high affinity site in protein C and Gla-domainless protein C (protein C lacking residues 1-44) results in a conformational change that is required for activation by the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex, the natural activator of protein C. Protein C modeling studies suggested the single high affinity Ca2+ binding-site might be present in a loop in the protease domain and involve Glu-70 and -80 (chymotrypsin numbering system). This loop, which is a known Ca(2+)-binding site in trypsin, is also conserved in other coagulation proteases, including factors VII, IX,and X. In thrombin, which does not bind Ca2+, Glu-70 is replaced by Lys, creating an internal salt bridge with Glu-80. We constructed and expressed a Gla-domainless protein C mutant in which Glu-80 is replaced with Lys. The activation of the resultant mutant is accelerated by thrombomodulin in a Ca(2+)-independent fashion. Unlike wild type Gla-domainless protein C, Ca2+ no longer inhibits activation of the mutant by free thrombin, and Ca2+ stimulation of chromogenic activity is also absent. The characteristic Ca(2+)-dependent quenching of Gla-domainless protein C intrinsic fluorescence is also absent in the mutant. We conclude that the high affinity Ca(2+)-binding site in protein C critical for zymogen activation involves Glu-80. The Glu-80 to Lys mutation probably results in a salt bridge with Glu-70 that stabilizes protein C zymogen in a conformation similar, if not identical, to the Ca(2+)-stabilized conformation favorable for rapid activation by the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex.
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PMID:Mutation of Glu-80-->Lys results in a protein C mutant that no longer requires Ca2+ for rapid activation by the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex. 790 67

Protein C is a vitamin K-dependent serine protease zymogen that upon activation inhibits the coagulation cascade by inactivating factors Va and VIIIa. In an attempt to improve the anticoagulant activity of activated protein C (APC), we have prepared a mutant of protein C in mammalian cells in which Glu at position 192 (chymotrypsin numbering system) has been replaced with Gln (PC E192Q). Our strategy is based on the observation that the same substitution in thrombin improves the catalytic activity toward natural and synthetic substrates that contain Asp residues at P3 and P3'. Since factor Va also has an Asp at position P3 in the APC cleavage site of the factor Va heavy chain, we hypothesized that APC E192Q would inactivate factor Va more rapidly than wild type APC. The mutant inactivated factor Va approximately 2-3-fold faster than wild type. In plasma the mutant exhibited slightly less anticoagulant activity than wild type enzyme. Further characterization revealed that APC E192Q is inhibited 280 times faster than APC by alpha 1-antitrypsin (K2 = 2.8 x 10(3) M-1S-1 versus 10 M-1 S-1), and unlike APC, APC E192Q is inhibited by antithrombin III in the presence of heparin (K2 = 1.17 x 10(3) M-1 S-1) M-1 S-1) and absence of heparin (K2 = 57 M-1 S-1). Ca2+ increased K2 more than 4-fold with or without heparin. Unlike wild type APC, APC E192Q was effectively inhibited by pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (Ki = 10.6 +/- 0.26 nM) and tissue factor pathway inhibitor (58 +/- 5 nM). Like factor Xa, APC E192Q rapidly processed factor IX to factor IX alpha. These observations suggest that even though Glu at position 192 is not an optimal residue for catalyzing factor Va inactivation, it is an evolutionary adaptation to slow inhibition by plasma protease inhibitors.
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PMID:Conversion of glutamic acid 192 to glutamine in activated protein C changes the substrate specificity and increases reactivity toward macromolecular inhibitors. 810 82

Protein C is a vitamin K-dependent anticoagulant serine protease zymogen in plasma which upon activation by the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex down-regulates the coagulation cascade by degrading cofactors Va and VIIIa by limited proteolysis. In addition to its anticoagulant function, activated protein C (APC) also binds to endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) in lipid-rafts/caveolar compartments to activate protease- activated receptor 1 (PAR-1) thereby eliciting antiinflammatory and cytoprotective signaling responses in endothelial cells. These properties have led to FDA approval of recombinant APC as a therapeutic drug for severe sepsis. The mechanism by which APC selects its substrates in the anticoagulant and antiinflammatory pathways is not well understood. Recent structural and mutagenesis data have indicated that basic residues of three exposed surface loops known as 39-loop (Lys-37, Lys-38, and Lys-39), 60-loop (Lys-62, Lys- 63, and Arg-67), and 70-80-loop (Arg-74, Arg-75, and Lys-78) (chymotrypsin numbering) constitute an anion binding exosite in APC that interacts with the procoagulant cofactors Va and VIIIa in the anticoagulant pathway. Furthermore, two negatively charged residues on the opposite side of the active-site of APC on a helical structure have been demonstrated to determine the specificity of the PAR-1 recognition in the cytoprotective pathway. This article will review the mechanism by which APC exerts its proteolytic function in two physiologically inter-related pathways and how the structure- function insights into determinants of the specificity of APC interaction with its substrates in two pathways can be utilized to tinker with the structure of the molecule to obtain APC derivatives with potentially improved therapeutic profiles.
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PMID:Regulation of the protein C anticoagulant and antiinflammatory pathways. 2042 10