Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.4.23.5 (cathepsin D)
 4,130 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Procathepsin L, the precursor to a powerful lysosomal cysteine proteinase, has been purified to apparent homogeneity from guinea pig spermatozoa, a novel and previously unrecognized source of this catalytically active zymogen. In the range of pH 5.0, procathepsin L (39,000 M(r)) readily self-processed yielding a mature, single-chain proteinase (29,000 M(r)) and an intact propeptide (10,000 M(r)) by what appeared kinetically to be an intramolecular reaction mechanism. These characteristics resembled those reported for the "major excreted protein" (MEP) of malignantly transformed mouse fibroblasts-a protein that has been characterized as the precursor to the mouse analog of human cathepsin L (B. R. Troen, S. Gal, and M. M. Gottesman (1987) Biochem. J. 246, 731-735). Other characteristics shared by the guinea pig and mouse zymogens included proteolytic activity at pH 5.0, homologous N-terminal amino acid sequences, and immunological relatedness. It was thus concluded that acrosomal procathepsin L is the guinea pig analog of MEP. Acrosomal procathepsin L had a specific activity on benzyloxy-carbonyl-Phe-Arg-7-(4-methyl)coumarylamide (Z-Phe-Arg-NMec) of 30 mumol min-1 mg-1 enzyme at pH 3.2 and 37 degrees C. Relative to the assay substrate, rates on other fluorogenic substrates were 90% for Z-Phe-Cit-NMec, 63% for Z-Leu-Leu-Arg-NMec, 43% for D-Phe-Ser(Bzl)-Phe-Phe-Ala-Ala-p-aminobenzoate (a "specific" cathepsin D assay substrate), and 32% for Z-Val-Val-Arg-NMec. No action was detected on Z-Arg-Arg-NMec or Arg-NMec. Mature cathepsin L showed the same relative order of substrate specificity as its proenzyme form, but the absolute rates were about 5-fold greater. Additionally, the mature (single-chain) form of cathepsin L displayed Km and kcat values on Z-Phe-Arg-NMec that yielded an exceptionally high catalytic coefficient (11,600 s-1 mM-1) compared to values reported for two-chain forms of cathepsin L. Self-processing by acrosomal procathepsin L at pH 5.5 was totally inhibited by leupeptin, cystatin C, Ep-475, and Z-Phe-Phe-CHN2 at 1 microM levels. Gossypol (0.1 mM) gave 94% inhibition. Interestingly, dextran sulfate (100 micrograms ml-1) gave a 3.6-fold increase in the rate of self-processing seen at pH 5.5--a phenomenon of potential physiological relevance in view of the high-negative-charge density present within the hyaluronic acid-rich outer layer (cumulus oophorus) of the ovum.
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PMID:Purification and characterization of procathepsin L, a self-processing zymogen of guinea pig spermatozoa that acts on a cathepsin D assay substrate. 748 6

The degree of post-translational enzymatic deimination (conversion of arginyl to citrullinyl residues) of myelin basic protein (MBP) is correlated with the severity of the human autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS). It is difficult to obtain large quantities of deiminated MBP from natural sources (autopsy material), and in vitro deimination using peptidylarginine deiminase (EC 3.5.3.15) is both non-specific and irreproducible. Since there is no known codon for citrulline, we have constructed a mutant form of recombinant murine MBP (rmMBP) in which 5 Arg and 1 Lys residues have been replaced by Gln as the most reasonable analogue of Cit. The residues were chosen to correspond to the 6 Arg residues in human MBP which are most commonly deiminated in chronic MS. The mutant species, rmMBP-qCit(6) where the "q" represents "quasi-," was probed by numerous biochemical and biophysical techniques. Highly homogeneous protein preparations were obtained using a modified expression system which minimised spurious misincorporation of Lys for Arg, as ascertained by electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry. The mutant form rmMBP-qCit(6) had a reduced ability to aggregate lipid vesicles, a slightly greater susceptibility to digestion by cathepsin D, a greater proportion of random secondary structure, and different conformational responses to lipids, compared with the unmodified rmMBP. Overall, the mutant protein's properties were consistent with the effects of deimination and support its use as a model for evaluating the effects of this modification.
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PMID:An Arg/Lys-->Gln mutant of recombinant murine myelin basic protein as a mimic of the deiminated form implicated in multiple sclerosis. 1213 68