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

Adler and Martin (1983, Curr. Eye Res. 2, 359-66) found cathepsin D to be present in crude preparations of bovine interphotoreceptor matrix (IPM). The purpose of the present study was to determine, by investigating several acid hydrolases in purer IPM samples, whether hydrolytic enzymes abundant in RPE lysosomes were present also as normal components of the IPM. IPM was prepared from bovine eyes by the introduction of a small bleb of buffer between the neural retina and the RPE. These IPM samples were free from significant contamination by surrounding tissues; they contained IRBP as their only major protein, and had negligible amounts of lactate dehydrogenase and ROS-specific proteins. Most acid hydrolases were assayed fluorometrically by measuring the 4-methylumbelliferone released upon hydrolysis of appropriate derivatives; the substrate for cathepsin was hemoglobin. The amounts of the enzymes found in the IPM were far from uniform and could not be correlated with enzyme activities in either RPE or retina homogenates. The hydrolases in the IPM varied in amount from beta-galactosidase (28% of the RPE level), through N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase (20%), alpha-fucosidase (15%), beta-glucuronidase (12%), alpha-glucosidase (8%), cathepsin D (7%), alpha-mannosidase (7%), down to beta-glucosidase, acid phosphatase, and acid lipase (trace amounts, less than 1%). These results agree with the relative amounts of enzymes found by Wilcox (1987) to be secreted into the medium by cultured human RPE cells. Furthermore, the rank order of hydrolases in the IPM is the same as that for hydrolases secreted (but not recaptured) by human fibroblasts in I-cell disease. The conclusion from these correlations is that lysosomal enzymes are probably secreted, as a normal process, by the RPE into the IPM, where they may have a role in digesting shed outer segments and in catabolizing IPM components.
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PMID:Selective presence of acid hydrolases in the interphotoreceptor matrix. 261 85

Opsin, the alpha-subunit of transducin, S-antigen, interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) and cathepsin D were assessed in autopsy eyes from patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and normal autopsy eyes. Immunochemical methods were used to determine the presence of these proteins on Western blots of retinal homogenates from five RP donors and on blots of interphotoreceptor matrix (IPM) preparations from six other RP eyes. The amounts of immunoreactive opsin, S-antigen, alpha-transducin, and IRBP appeared below normal in retinas from RP eyes. All six IPM samples from patients with advanced RP had reduced amounts of S-antigen and no detectable IRBP or transducin. Cathepsin D (an RPE protein) was present in IPM or RP eyes in amounts comparable to that in IPMs from normal eyes. Small amounts of cathepsin D were also detected in retinas from both normal and RP eyes. These studies show that proteins specific to the photoreceptor-pigment epithelium complex in normal eyes can be detected in autopsy eyes from patients with RP and suggest that the observed reductions in photoreceptor-specific proteins occur as a consequence of photoreceptor loss.
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PMID:Identification of proteins in retinas and IPM from eyes with retinitis pigmentosa. 297 63