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 proteolytic digestion of GPIIIa on intact platelets by chymotrypsin, thrombin, plasmin, trypsin, and staphylococcal V8 protease was monitored in immunoblot studies employing three different antibodies to GPIIIa, one of which was made against a 13-residue synthetic peptide containing the amino terminus of GPIIIa. Chymotrypsin, plasmin, and trypsin gave similar patterns, from which it could be inferred that the major products after extensive digestion were two-chain molecules composed of amino-terminal fragments of Mr approximately 17,000-18,000 disulfide bonded to carboxyl-terminal remnants of Mr approximately 58,000-70,000. These patterns suggest that GPIIIa contains a large disulfide-bonded loop of at least 325 amino acids that is susceptible to proteolytic cleavage, and that the 4 cysteine residues between residues 177 and 273 bond with each other. Such a structure can also account for the presence of the PIA1 epitope, which has recently been localized to a polymorphism at position 33 on these late digestion products. Thrombin did not proteolyze GPIIIa even at 2.5 units/ml. Still to be resolved is whether the minor immunoreactive GPIIIa bands found on normal platelets are related to in vivo or in vitro proteolysis and whether GPIIIa proteolysis plays a role in chymotrypsin-induced exposure of the GPIIb/IIIa receptor.
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PMID:Evidence that platelet glycoprotein IIIa has a large disulfide-bonded loop that is susceptible to proteolytic cleavage. 252 61

Previous studies have suggested that qualitative changes in platelet bound fibrinogen modulate platelet aggregation. The present study used confocal scanning laser microscopy to further evaluate post-ligand binding events over a 60-minute time course. When fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-streptavidin was added to ADP-stimulated platelets 1 minute after biotinylated fibrinogen binding at 22 degrees C, bound fibrinogen was found in variously sized patches on the cell surface. When streptavidin was added 60 minutes later, bound fibrinogen had been cleared from the platelet surface and was observed in clusters penetrating into platelets to various extents. ADP-activated platelets did not stain with a monoclonal antibody against CD62 suggesting that platelets were not permeabilized during the experiment and had not released alpha-granules. Additional studies using either biotinylated fibrinogen that had been prelabeled with FITC-streptavidin or FITC-labeled fibrinogen revealed similar patterns of platelet-associated fibrinogen clearance and redistribution. Pretreatment of platelets with cytochalasin D prevented this redistribution. Dual labeling experiments using biotinylated fibrinogen and FITC-streptavidin as well as a monoclonal anti-GPIIIa antibody labeled with rhodamine-conjugated anti-mouse IgG demonstrated the co-localization of fibrinogen and GPIIIa. Similar observations were made with fibrinogen bound to thrombin-stimulated platelets. In contrast, fibronectin bound to thrombin-activated platelets retained a predominantly surface membrane distribution under identical experimental conditions. Since surface-cleared fibrinogen was accessible to exogenous FITC-streptavidin under conditions that did not lead to platelet permeabilization, the data suggest fibrinogen deposition in compartments that are accessible to the extracellular milieu. This is consistent with the ability of exogenous plasmin to completely remove cleared fibrinogen pools without detectable fibrinogen reexpression on the platelet surface or alpha-granule secretion. The data provide morphological evidence for the selective, GPIIb-IIIa mediated, actin-dependent clearance of bound fibrinogen from the activated platelet surface, suggesting a mechanism for preventing and limiting thrombus development.
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PMID:Bound fibrinogen distribution on stimulated platelets. Examination by confocal scanning laser microscopy. 767 79

Plasmin exposure modulates platelet aggregation responses, but a direct effect of plasmin on the platelet fibrinogen receptor, glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GPIIb/IIIa), has never been conclusively shown in a plasma milieu. To examine this issue, we incubated platelets in platelet-rich plasma with plasmin and measured the effect of this treatment on platelet aggregation, fibrinogen binding, and the structural integrity of GPIIb/IIIa. Plasmin treatment reduced maximal reversible fibrinogen binding in a dose-dependent fashion, and this reduction in binding was accompanied by a correlative reduction in the maximal rate of aggregation. Immunoblots performed with polyclonal antibodies against GPIIb/IIIa showed that GPIIIa had been cleaved by plasmin, but this cleavage was detected only after subsequent degradation of the solubilized GPIIb/IIIa with Staphylococcus aureus V8 (Glu-C) endoprotease. Peptide sequence analysis showed that cleavage occurred at the lys444-pro445 bond in the first cysteine-rich repeat domain of GPIIIa a unique proteolytic event observed only in the presence of plasma fibrinogen. These observations suggest that plasmin modifies GPIIIa by a unique proteolytic event in plasma that is dependent on fibrinogen binding and, consequently, is accompanied by significant reductions in fibrinogen binding and aggregation response.
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PMID:Structural changes in platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa by plasmin: determinants and functional consequences. 828 40

Nattokinase is a new fibrinolytic enzyme which cleaves directly cross-linked fibrin in vitro. In this study, we investigated the thrombolytic effect of nattokinase on a thrombus in the common carotid artery of rat in which the endothelial cells of the vessel wall were injured by acetic acid. When a section of occluded vessel was stained for CD61 antigen by immunofluorescence utilizing a monoclonal antibody, the antigen was localized around the surface of the occluded blood vessels. This result suggests that the occlusive thrombosis was caused by platelet aggregation. In addition, thrombolysis with urokinase (UK; 50000 IU/kg, i.v.) or tissue plasminogen activator (tPA; 13300 IU/kg, i.v.) in our model was observed to restore the blood flow over a 60 min monitoring period. The results indicate that our chemically induced model is useful for screening and evaluating a thrombolytic agent. We evaluated the thrombolytic activity of nattokinase using this model and compared it with fibrino(geno)lytic enzyme, plasmin or elastase. On a molar basis, the recovery of the arterial blood flow with nattokinase, plasmin and elastase were 62.0 +/- 5.3%, 15.8 +/- 0.7% and 0%, respectively. The results indicate that the thrombolytic activity of nattokinase is stronger than that of plasmin or elastase in vivo.
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PMID:Thrombolytic effect of nattokinase on a chemically induced thrombosis model in rat. 859 42