Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound   Target Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound

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Query: EC:3.4.21.7 (plasmin)
9,023 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The capacity of solid tumours to invade the surrounding tissue and to metastasize, is correlated with the formation and degradation of structural elements in the vicinity of the tumour cells. Substances with both procoagulant activity and fibrinolytic activity are important factors in the formation or degradation of a "fibrin-fibronectin-gel matrix". This gel is subsequently transformed into the extracellular matrix, which, together with cells, will form the tumour stroma. When analyzing tumour stroma degradation products, it is obvious that the protease plasmin catalyses the disintegration of fibrin and fibronectin. Additional compounds of the tumour stroma and of the basal membrane are also, at least in part, broken down by plasmin or other proteases, such as collagenase IV and cathepsin D. The plasminogen activator urokinase (uPA) seems to play a central role as it was shown that elevated content of uPA is correlated with a high risk of early relapse and shorter overall survival, at least in breast cancer. It has been shown, that by means of quantifying uPA, patients with a relative high or low risk can even be selected within the classical risk groups, which so far are defined by the locoregional extension of the tumour and the hormone receptor status only. Evidently, as uPA content in human breast cancer tissue is an independent prognostic factor, one may speculate, that those experimental or in vitro data, which correlated increase in uPA-synthesis with malignancy, may be of direct relevance for human tumour biology. Moreover, due to these recent observations on the prognostic significance of tumour-associated proteases, new aspects for the selection of risk collectives within the node-negative breast cancer patients for adjuvant therapy have to be considered. It may well be possible, that one may affect tumour invasion and metastasis by inhibiting protease action of solid tumours by disturbing the binding of proteases to tumour cell surface receptors. As it is only a quantitative aspect, which separates benign physiological processes from tumour cell pathophysiology, experimental evidence suggests, that less drastic forms of palliative therapy can be proposed.
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PMID:[Clinical and prognostic significance of tumor-associated proteases in gynecologic oncology]. 204 Apr 18

The paper deals with a potential role of fibronectin proteolysis associated with plasma cell membrane receptors in the control of cell behaviour. The molecule of fibronectin contains at least 5 adhesive domains providing its interaction with cell receptors and at least 2 domains interacting with other molecules of an extracellular matrix (ECM). Different cells in various states (steady state, motion, proliferation) interact with all or some of the adhesive domains of fibronectin. Limited fibronectin proteolysis as a linking between the cell and ECM results in a change in the cell status. Limited proteolysis of cell-bound fibronectin may occur with several proteinases: 1) uPA having a receptor in the focal contact of a cell; 2) plasmin resulted from plasminogen under the action of uPA; 3) stromelysin whose synthesis is induced by fibronectin proteolytic fragments; 4) metalloproteinases secreted by some cells and involving in the hapatotactic motion of a cell over fibronectin. Proteolysis of fibronectin and other ECM molecules may be inhibited itself due to proteolysis-induced release of inhibitors via binding to fibronectin (proteasonexin) and via binding to other ECM molecules (PAI-1). The fact that there is a direct and inverse correlation in the proteolytic process associated with a fibronectin cell (and other ECM molecules) indicate that the behavior of a cell can be controlled by the mechanism of proteolytic impairment of the cell-EMC and cell-cell bonds.
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PMID:[The role of fibronectin and possible participation of its proteolytic fragments in the changes in cell behavior]. 204 46

Phosphorylation is a potent mechanism regulating the activity of many intracellular enzymes. We have discovered that the product of the human urokinase plasminogen activator gene, pro-uPA, is phosphorylated in serine in at least two human cell lines. Phosphorylation occurs within the cell during biosynthesis, and phosphorylated intracellular pro-uPA is secreted into the medium. Of the secreted pro-uPA molecules, 20-50% are phosphorylated in serine, thus representing a meaningful fraction of the total biosynthetic pro-uPA. Although the sites of phosphorylation have not yet been determined, at least two such sites must exist; in fact plasmin cleavage of phosphorylated single chain pro-uPA yields a two chain uPA in which both chains are phosphorylated. A specific function for pro-uPA phosphorylation has not yet been identified; however, it is tempting to speculate that, as in many other cases, phosphorylation may affect the activity of the enzyme, its response to inhibitors or the conversion of pro-uPA zymogen to active two-chain uPA. This would represent an additional way of regulating extracellular proteolysis, an important pathway involved in both intra- and extravascular phenomena like fibrinolysis, cell migration and invasiveness.
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PMID:Serine phosphorylation of biosynthetic pro-urokinase from human tumor cells. 211 15

Slow and fast contracting muscles differ in their innervation and electrophysiological properties as well as in their regenerating potentialities. The purpose of the present work was to investigate the expression of plasminogen activators and its possible relation to each type of muscle. Slow (Soleus) and fast (Extensor Digitorum Longus) muscles were obtained from white Wistar rats. Before sectioning the muscles, the euthanized rats were perfused with cold phosphate buffer saline to avoid interference by circulating proteases and inhibitors. Muscle extracts were pounded in an ice-cold Potter tube. Plasminogen activators (PAs) were assayed by fibrin zymography and by both liquid and solid-phase fibrin spectrophotometric assays for the detection of PAs activity. Both urokinase (uPA) and tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) activities corresponding to proteins of 38 kDa and 65 kDa molecular masses, were detected in the extracts. Slow muscles contained higher amounts of both activators than fast muscles, but the relative amount of uPA was higher in both types of muscles. In addition, the characteristics of each type of extracts differed somewhat: the fast muscle activity curve was typical of an accelerating process, while the slow muscle curve showed an activity probably related to already formed plasmin or to some other trypsin-like enzyme. These results suggest that the amount of plasminogen activators could be a new criterion of discrimination between slow and fast skeletal muscles.
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PMID:Slow and fast rat skeletal muscles differ in their plasminogen activator activities. 211 33

Supernatant obtained from granulocytes stimulated in the presence of cytochalasin B by the chemotactic peptide N-formyl-norleucyl-leucyl-phenylalanyl-norleucyl-tyrosyl- lysine displayed an inhibitory effect on the plasmin-dependent conversion of tumor urokinase-type plasminogen activator proenzyme (pro-uPA) to the active form of uPA. Moreover, the supernatant was also found to inhibit the fibrinolytic activity of human vulva (A431) and breast (MCF7) carcinoma cell lines, which contain large amounts of pro-uPA, by 87% and 96%, respectively. By using eglin C (elastase inhibitor) and a monoclonal antibody to elastase (proteolytic activity blocker of the enzyme), elastase was identified as the key enzyme of the supernatant in these phenomena. Purified elastase converted pro-uPA to an enzymatically inactive molecule composed of two polypeptide chains of Mr = 33,000 and 22,000 linked to each other by a disulfide bond. Elastase-containing granulocytes were identified by immunohistochemistry techniques in the tissues of squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of uterus. The cells were found close to the tumor cells and in the stroma surrounding the tumor nests. By immunohistochemical staining, uPA was also found in the tumor cells. Evidently, elastase released by chemotactically activated granulocytes, which are attracted into tumor tissues, may inhibit the conversion of pro-uPA to enzymatically active uPA in the tumor cells.
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PMID:Inactivation of human tumor cell pro-urokinase by granulocyte elastase. 212 85

The correlation between urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) expression and tumor cell invasion and metastasis has been well documented. Urokinase converts the zymogen plasminogen to plasmin, a trypsin-like enzyme with broad substrate specificities. Net uPA activity is determined not only by the amount of the enzyme itself, but also by its state of activation and the amount of specific plasminogen activator inhibitors (PAIs) present. Both uPA and its substrate, plasminogen, can bind to cells via specific membrane-associated receptors. Expression of uPA, uPA receptor (uPAR), and PAIs is regulated by growth factors, oncogenes, and other effector molecules. In the present review we discuss the interactions of uPA with its receptor, inhibitors, and substrate and how these interactions influence malignant behavior. We also review recent reports in which investigators have used anti-catalytic antibodies and/or gene transfection to demonstrate that uPA is directly involved in tumor cell invasion and metastasis.
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PMID:The role of urokinase-type plasminogen activator in aggressive tumor cell behavior. 212 23

Thrombospondin (TSP), an adhesive glycoprotein found in platelets and extracellular matrix, has been shown previously to interact with plasminogen and tissue plasminogen activator, resulting in efficient plasmin generation. We now demonstrate specific complex formation of TSP with both the single-chain and two-chain forms of urokinase (scuPA and uPA). Binding of uPA and scuPA to immobilized TSP was detected and quantified using colorimetric immunoassays and a functional amidolytic assay. Binding was time and concentration dependent with apparent affinity constants of 40-50 nM. Binding was not affected by serine protease inhibitors, EDTA, or epsilon-aminocaproic acid. scUPA and uPA bound to TSP retained functional activity. Using a sensitive amidolytic assay we found that TSP. scuPA complexes were efficiently converted to TSP. uPA by catalytic plasmin concentrations. Additionally, TSP.uPA complexes were found to have plasminogen-activating activity equivalent to fluid-phase uPA and to be protected from inhibition by plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1, the major plasma and matrix plasminogen activator inhibitor. Using immunohistochemical techniques, we also demonstrated co-distribution of TSP and uPA in normal and malignant breast tissue. Complex formation of TSP with uPA may serve to localize, concentrate, and protect these enzymes on cell surfaces and within the extracellular matrix, thereby providing a reservoir of plasminogen activator activity.
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PMID:Thrombospondin forms complexes with single-chain and two-chain forms of urokinase. 214 8

Extracellular matrix metalloproteases are secreted by the resident cells of the tissue in a proenzyme form, and their extracellular activity is regulated at the level of gene expression, proenzyme activation, and interaction with inhibitors. To understand the molecular mechanisms that control the activity of ECM metalloproteases and their effect on the cellular phenotype, we have established cell lines in which the transcription of the protease genes is repressed. We also have undertaken a detailed study of the pathway of extracellular activation of interstitial procollagenase. Stable transfection of three human tumor cell lines--H-ras-transformed bronchial epithelial cells TBE-1, fibrosarcoma cells HT1080, and melanoma cells A2058--with the adenovirus E1A gene dramatically repressed the expression of the secreted proteases, type IV and interstitial collagenases, and urokinase-type plasminogen activator. Concomitantly, E1A-expressing cells showed reduced metastatic activity in vivo and reduced ability to traverse a reconstituted basement membrane in vitro. Monospecific anti-type IV collagenase antibody inhibited the invasive activity of parental tumor cell lines in the in vitro system, suggesting a possible causal relationship between the effect of E1A on the expression of secreted proteases and the reduced metastatic potential of the E1A-expressing transformants. We have also studied the mechanism of regulation of metalloprotease activity at the level of extracellular activation by investigating the cascade of proteolytic events that results in the activation of interstitial procollagenase. Cocultivation of the major cellular components of skin, dermal fibroblasts, and epidermal keratinocytes induces activation of interstitial procollagenase and prostromelysin in the presence of plasminogen. This activation occurs through a uPA-plasmin-dependent pathway in which plasmin catalyzes the first step in activation of both collagenase and stromelysin by amino-terminal processing. Activated stromelysin can in turn convert plasmin-activated collagenase into a fully active enzyme by removal of approximately 15 amino acid residues from the carboxyl end of the enzyme. This second step of activation results in a 5-8-fold further increase in specific activity of collagenase. This cascade of proteolytic events may constitute a major physiologic pathway of collagenase activation.
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PMID:Secreted proteases. Regulation of their activity and their possible role in metastasis. 215 52

Polymorphonuclear leucocyte (PMN) accumulation is associated with damage to airways epithelial cells in bronchitis, bronchiectasis and some forms of asthma. PMNs release several molecules which may mediate this damage, particularly proteases and oxidants. Using an in vitro model of intact human amnionic epithelial cells (EC) attached to native basement membrane (BM), we evaluated the capacity of several proteases and oxidants to induce detachment of EC from the BM. Maximum desquamation was observed with collagenase, elastase and trypsin, with minimum effective concentrations required to produce 50% EC-desquamation (MEC50) for highly purified collagenase, pancreatic elastase, human leucocyte elastase, human leucocyte cathepsin-G (Cath-G), trypsin, and kallikrein being 3616 +/- 989 U/mL, 32.3 +/- 14.7 U/mL, 85.8 +/- 26.7 U/mL, 360 +/- 20 U/mL, 340 +/- 49 BAEE U/mL and 300 +/- 23 U/mL, respectively. Urokinase (20 U/mL) and plasmin (500 U/mL) produced no desquamation in this system. Relatively high concentrations of oxidants also produced detachment (MEC50 for H2O2 and HOCl being 0.59 +/- 0.006 mol/L and 0.015 +/- 0.009 mol/L, respectively) and pretreatment of EC membranes with non-detaching concentrations of H2O2 rendered them 10-fold more susceptible to protease-induced desquamation, suggesting synergism. Reduced glutathione (GSH), N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), ethylenediamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) and 1,10 phenanthroline ablated collagenase induced EC-detachment. Elastase induced detachment was sensitive to inhibition by phenyl methyl sulfonyl fluoride (PMSF) and alpha 1-anti-proteinase (alpha 1-AP) and, to a lesser extent by aprotinin; trypsin-induced detachment was ablated by PMSF, alpha 1-AP and soybean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI) but not by 1,10 phenanthroline or EDTA. Cath-G induced detachment was profoundly inhibited by SBTI, GSH and NAC. These data demonstrate that human EC can be detached from intact BM by several PMN products, including collagenase, Cath-G and elastase, and that PMN-mediated detachment can be prevented by Cath-G and collagenase inhibitors. The data suggest a role for proteases, particularly Cath-G and collagenase, plus oxidants in synergism with proteases, in mediating PMN-induced EC detachment.
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PMID:Study of human epithelial cell detachment and damage: effects of proteases and oxidants. 220 Jul 49

The functional role of the fibrinolytic system in capillary growth was investigated using bovine capillary endothelial cells (BCEs) cultured on a Type I collagen gel matrix, into which the cells migrated to form capillary-like tubular structures. The length of the tubes formed were measured morphometrically using an image analyzer in the absence and presence of fibrinolytic proteases, namely plasminogen, plasminogen activators (PAs) and PA inhibitor (PAI). The addition of plasminogen (25 micrograms/ml) to the gel matrix significantly increased the length of BCE tubes found on the 9th day of culture (p less than 0.01), with a dose-dependent tendency. The simultaneous addition of a basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF, 10 ng/ml) enhanced this tube formation as early as the 3rd day of culture (p less than 0.01). Cultured BCEs secreted both tissue-type and urokinase-type PAs (tPA and uPA) and PAI-1 into the culture medium, and the secretion of both PAs was enhanced by the addition of bFGF. However, the secreted tPA was composed mostly of an inactive form of tPA.PAI-1 complex, and the PA activity was derived mostly from uPA. Inhibitors of plasmin suppressed the enhancing effect of plasminogen on angiogenesis. In addition, anti-uPA IgG markedly inhibited the enhancing effect of plasminogen on the 4th and 7th days of culture (p less than 0.01), whereas anti-tPA IgG showed an inhibitory tendency only on the 4th day of culture (p less than 0.05). These findings indicate that the plasminogen-PAs system, especially uPA synthesized and secreted by BCEs, plays an important role in regulating angiogenesis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:A role of fibrinolytic activity in angiogenesis. Quantitative assay using in vitro method. 248 Nov 53


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