Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.4.21.73 (urokinase-type plasminogen activator)
 10,685 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Fibrinolysis is a physiological process which aims at dissolving intravascular thrombi and is mediated by activation of plasminogen to plasmin. Streptokinase (SK) and urokinase (UK) are non-specific plasminogen activators. They have proved effective as thrombolytic agents, but their use is limited by the risk of haemorrhages due to systemic fibrinogenolysis. More fibrin-specific drugs have recently been developed. One is a tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA), the other is a urokinase precursor (pro-UK), also called single chain urokinase plasminogen activator (scu-PA). Genetic engineering techniques have resulted in the large-scale production of a "recombinant t-PA" (rt-PA) and a "recombinant scu-PA" (r scu-PA) for therapeutic use, notably in acute myocardial infarction. In vitro, these two drugs exhibit a thrombolytic activity that is equal to, or greater than that of SK or UK. In vivo, their fibrinogenolytic effect is less pronounced, and their thrombolytic effect greater than those of SK or UK. "Acyl-enzymes" have more recently emerged. These are inactive acylated SK-plasminogen complexes which progressively become effective in plasma after deacylation. So far, the most extensively studied of these complexes is BRL 26921 (anisoylated plasminogen streptokinase activator complex, or APSAC) which is administered by bolus intravenous injection. It is more thrombolytic than SK but produces systemic fibrinogenolysis to an equivalent degree. Injected intravenously (by infusion or bolus) during the first hours of a coronary infarction these three new thrombolytic agents have proved effective in promoting coronary reperfusion, with an early coronary patency rate of 70-75%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[New thrombolytic agents in myocardial infarction]. 312 22

Significant current interest has focused on the possible value of fibrin-selective thrombolytic agents in acute stroke. Acute thrombosis contributes to carotid and vertebrobasilar arterial occlusions in the majority of acute stroke patients. Hence, fibrin(ogen)olytic agents may produce arterial recanalization and clinical benefit in thrombotic stroke. There are, however, unique features of cerebral tissue that suggest caution with the use of fibrin-selective agents in cerebral ischemia. The specific vascular anatomy and collateral flow suggest that salvage of the "ischemic penumbra" following vascular recanalization in focal ischemia is more likely to be successful than attempts in global ischemia. Recanalization may be associated with reperfusion injury and, more importantly, the risk of hemorrhagic transformation. There is little concrete information regarding the relative contribution of either event to post-thrombolysis cerebral injury. Early studies with exogenous fibrinolytic agents (urokinase, streptokinase) in completed stroke were regarded as inconclusive, demonstrating only an increased risk of intracerebral hemorrhage. Subsequent pilot studies in carotid and in vertebrobasilar territory thrombotic stroke have demonstrated that recanalization can result when exogenous agents are infused just proximal to the cerebral artery occlusion by interventional neuroradiological techniques. This experience and the advent of fibrin-selective agents (tissue plasminogen activator [tPA] and single-chain urokinase plasminogen activator) have led to the development of a multicenter prospective safety/dose-ranging study of tPA in acute (less than eight hours from symptom onset) thrombotic stroke. Following initial clinical assessment, computed tomography scan, and angiography, each patient with a documented cerebral artery occlusion appropriate to the clinical syndrome receives a preassigned intravenous dose of tPA over 60 minutes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Investigational use of tPA in acute stroke. 314 17

Cultures of dissociated neonatal mouse cerebellar cells secrete primarily tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and to a lesser extent urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) into the culture medium. Fibrin overlays have localized plasminogen activator to granule neurons in these cultures; furthermore, this granule cell plasminogen activator activity is blocked by an antibody to tPA. Developmental studies indicate that maximal levels of soluble plasminogen activator in the culture medium preceed the peak of fibrinolytic activity by these cultures, suggesting that secreted PA may bind back to the surface of these granule neurons. Here we show that granule cell-associated tPA can be displaced by a brief pH shock. However, incubation of these fibrinolytically inactive cultures with exogenously added mouse tPA leads to a specific binding of active tPA to granule neurons as visualized by subsequent fibrin overlay. In similar studies mouse uPA, human uPa, and human tPA fail to show fibrinolytic activity associated with the cerebellar culture, whereas mouse tPA fails to bind to cerebellar glial cell cultures. These findings suggest that granule neurons possess binding sites for tPA on their surface, where this protease can retain its functional activity and may play an important role in cell migration or other cell activities.
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PMID:Tissue plasminogen activator binding to mouse cerebellar granule neurons. 314 83

Thrombolytic, fibrinolytic, and fibrinogenolytic properties of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) from melanoma cells (mt-PA), recombinant t-PA (rt-PA), streptokinase (SK), single-chain urokinase plasminogen activator (scu-PA), and high and low molecular weight urokinase (HMW UK, LMW UK) were compared in vitro by means of systems using human plasma. Thrombolytic activities were tested on standard or labeled hanging clots. When compared on the basis of urokinase international units, t-PA appeared to be slightly more active than scu-PA and streptokinase, and about 10-fold more active than both preparations of UK when they were diluted in plasma. Fibrinolytic activity was evaluated by measuring the lysis time of recalcified plasma containing variable amounts of thrombolytic agents. t-PA was shown to be twice as active as HMW UK, which was itself more active than LMW UK. When scu-PA and both types of UK were compared on bovine fibrin plates, they showed similar fibrinolytic activity, but the t-PA calibration curve was not parallel to those obtained with UK and scu-PA. Relative thrombolytic and fibrinogenolytic properties were studied for each thrombolytic agent. For similar thrombolytic activities, fibrinogenolysis provoked by scu-PA was less marked than with t-PA and with both UK, while SK showed the highest activity. Our results demonstrate that the thrombolytic/fibrinogenolytic ratio is much more favorable to t-PA and scu-PA than to both forms of UK. Another observation clearly shows that fibrinogenolysis can be induced in vitro in human plasma by high doses of t-PA. This consequence may be important since the therapeutic use of t-PA can be associated with high concentrations of t-PA, and thus t-PA infusion could lead in vivo to severe fibrinogen breakdown. In addition, the methodology described could be useful in standardizing comparison between different species of thrombolytic agents.
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PMID:Comparison of thrombolytic, fibrinolytic, and fibrinogenolytic properties of tissue plasminogen activator, streptokinase, single-chain urokinase, high molecular weight and low molecular weight urokinase in human plasma in vitro. 314 57

To mimic the sequence spanning the primary site (the Lys158-Ile159 bond) cleaved by plasmin in its conversion of single-chain urokinase plasminogen activator (scuPA) to urokinase, we synthesized the peptide Cys(Acm)-Leu-Arg-Pro-Arg-Phe-Lys-Ile-Ile-Gly-Gly-Glu-Phe-Cys [Cys(Acm)scuPA(153-164)Cys]. Immunization of A/J mice with the Cys(Acm)scuPA(153-164)Cys peptide linked to hemocyanin, followed by somatic cell fusion with a myeloma cell line (SP2/0), yielded a monoclonal antibody (SCOOP1) that bound to single-chain urokinase but not to urokinase or plasmin-treated single-chain urokinase. SCOOP1 could discriminate between single-chain urokinase and urokinase by greater than three orders of magnitude. In a radioimmunoassay, Cys(Acm)scuPA(153-164)Cys completely inhibited SCOOP1 binding to single-chain urokinase, whereas an equimolar mixture of two heptapeptides comprising the amino terminal [Cys-scuPA(153-158)] and carboxy terminal [scuPA(159-164)Cys)] halves of the cleavage site peptide did not. Thus the epitope recognized by SCOOP1 includes the Lys158-Ile159 peptide bond.
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PMID:A sequence-dependent monoclonal antibody specific for single-chain urokinase. 336 58

We have investigated the molecular changes which occur during pressure overload hypertrophy of the RV in swine. Animals were banded on the pulmonary artery so that right ventricular pressure was increased two-fold. The heart was harvested at 3, 7, 24 and 72 h after surgery. Between 7 and 72 h there was evidence of muscle damage and inflammation. Northern blot experiments showed that pressure overload induced a transient increase in the expression of the immediate early genes and in the developmentally regulated atrial natriuretic factor and skeletal muscle alpha actin genes. Consistent with the histological observations of inflammation, increases in the expression of the gene for intercellular adhesion molecule, which encodes a protein involved in the binding of leukocytes by endothelial cells and myocytes, was observed between 3 and 24 h. In addition, the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor, a growth and permeability factor specific for endothelial cells was increased at 3 and 7 h of pressure overload. An increase in the expression of urokinase plasminogen activator and its inhibitors, plasminogen activator inhibitors I and II, was also observed between 3 and 24 h. This was associated with an increase in urokinase activity in the myocardial tissue. These results indicate that hypertrophy in a large mammal such as swine induces a program of gene expression similar to that previously described in rodents and suggests that up-regulation of a variety of other genes is an early response to pressure overload.
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PMID:Gene expression in a swine model of right ventricular hypertrophy: intercellular adhesion molecule, vascular endothelial growth factor and plasminogen activators are upregulated during pressure overload. 747 88

Plasmin (Pm) is a broad action serine protease implicated in numerous physiological functions. In bone, Pm may play a role in growth, resorption, metastasis, and the activation of growth factors. The various components of the Pm system are known to bind and function on the cell surface of various cell types, but no pertinent data are available describing membrane-bound Pm or its zymogen, plasminogen (Pg), in either normal or neoplastic bone cells. We report here that Pg binds to the surface of the human osteosarcoma cell line MG-63 and is activated to Pm by endogenous urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA). These conclusions are based on experiments utilizing radiolabeled compounds and a cell surface proteolytic assay measuring amidolytic activity of Pm. 125I-Pg binding to cells was time dependent, saturable, reversible, and specific. Binding was characterized by a relatively low affinity (Kd approximately 0.9 microM) and a high capacity (approximately 7.5 x 10(6) sites/cell). The binding of 125I-Pg was associated with lysine binding sites of the plasminogen molecule. Activation of 125I-Pg to 125I-Pm occurred on the cell surface and was dependent upon cell bound uPA, as determined by inhibitory antibodies. Binding of Pg to MG-63 monolayers represented approximately 80% bound specifically to the cell surface and the remainder to the surrounding extra-cellular matrix. Either co-incubation with uPA or pre-incubation with Pm resulted in increased 125I-Pg binding to osteosarcoma cells. Cell surface Pm proteolytic activity was confirmed by an amidolytic chromogenic assay. Both Pm and Pg bound to cells with Pg being activated by endogenous uPA. Plasmin activated on the cell surface was partially protected from inhibition by alpha 2-antiPm (requiring Pm lysine binding site interaction) but inhibited by aprotinin, (interacting directly with the Pm catalytic site). Resistance of cell bound Pm to alpha 2-antiPm inhibition suggests that cell surface proteolysis can occur in the presence of a soluble Pm inhibitor known to exist in the extracellular space. Based on these results, we speculate that the various bone physiological processes implicating Pm may occur at or near the bone cell surface.
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PMID:Binding and activation of plasminogen on the surface of osteosarcoma cells. 751 Nov 44

The usefulness of routine clinical application of the urokinase plasminogen activator in prostate cancer was evaluated. The urokinase values of prostate cancer confined to the organ, with extraprostatic spread and with metastatic disease did not differ and showed no significant difference in comparison with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Urokinase is not a useful parameter in clinical routine.
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PMID:Prognostic value of urokinase plasminogen activator for prostatic carcinoma. 751 34

Using confocal fluorescence microscopy with a monoclonal antibody, we have localized the receptor for urokinase plasminogen activator (uPAR) in MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells migrating into a reconstituted basement membrane. Patchy and polarized uPAR immunoreactivity was found at the cell membrane, and strong staining was found both in the ruffled border or leading edge of the cells and at pseudopodia penetrating into the membrane. Intracellular uPAR staining was localized in the paranuclear region and in rounded granule-like structures; some of these were identified as lysosomes by double staining for uPAR and the lysosomal enzyme cathepsin D. Urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) activity has previously been shown to play a role in migration of cells into basement membranes, and it has been proposed that uPAR also is involved in this process. uPA is known to be internalized and degraded after complex formation with the inhibitor PAI-1. Lysosomal uPAR immunoreactivity may result from concomitant internalization of the receptor.
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PMID:Confocal fluorescence microscopy of urokinase plasminogen activator receptor and cathepsin D in human MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells migrating in reconstituted basement membrane. 751 99

The formation of new blood vessels is an essential process in embryonic development and wound healing, for tumor growth and metastasis. In situ hybridization studies have revealed that the protooncogene c-est1 is expressed in endothelial cells at the beginning of blood vessel formation, in normal and pathological conditions. c-ets1 encodes a transcription factor, a protein which binds specifically to DNA and which regulates the transcription of genes containing these specific binding sequences in their promotors. Thus, in vitro experiments suggest that c-ets1 may activate the transcription of genes encoding collagenase 1, stromelysine 1 and urokinase plasminogen activator, proteases involved in extracellular matrix degradation. A working hypothesis is that c-ets1 takes part in regulating angiogenesis by controlling the transcription of these genes whose activity is necessary for the migration of endothelial cells from pre-existing capillaries. This hypothesis is discussed with respect to current experimental evidence and to the complexity of the regulatory network controlling gene transcription and extracellular matrix degradation.
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PMID:[Does oncogene c-ets 1 participate in the regulation of tumor angiogenesis?]. 751 28


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