Carboxy-terminal lysine residues on the surface of cells and fibrin bind plasminogen and control its activation. Since plasma contains basic carboxypeptidases, which remove carboxy-terminal lysines from protein substrates, we investigated if these enzymes are involved in the regulation of plasminogen binding sites. Plasma reduced plasminogen binding to cells, and this effect could be ascribed to the activity of the plasma carboxypeptidases. Purified carboxypeptidase N, which is constitutively active, and plasma carboxypeptidase B, which circulates as a zymogen, were both capable of significantly reducing plasminogen binding to cells. Dose titration experiments verified that plasma concentrations of either carboxypeptidase were sufficient to maximally affect plasminogen binding to cells. Furthermore, plasma carboxypeptidase B, but not carboxypeptidase N, reduced the rate of whole blood clot lysis induced by tissue-type plasminogen activator. These findings establish that plasma carboxypeptidases can modulate plasminogen binding to cells and control the rate of fibrinolysis. These functions delineate a novel role for the plasma carboxypeptidases in the regulation of the plasminogen system. (J. Clin. Invest. 1995Invest. . 96:2534Invest. -2538

Recently we reported the isolation and cloning of a novel plasma procarboxypeptidase B that binds plasminogen [Eaton, D. L., Malloy, B. E., Tsai, S. P., Henzel, W., & Drayna, D. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 21833-21838]. This plasma procarboxypeptidase is structurally similar to tissue procarboxypeptidases, and initial substrate studies showed that this plasma protein behaves like a basic carboxypeptidase and is now known as human plasma procarboxypeptidase B (pro-pCPB). However, unlike the tissue procarboxypeptidases, pro-pCPB is extremely unstable to trypsin activation. Trypsin cleaves pro-pCPB at two sites: Arg-92 and Arg-330. Cleavage at Arg-92 releases the activation peptide and generates an active enzyme. However, cleavage at Arg-330 inactivates pCPB. This renders the characterization of pCPB difficult. We have found that 6-amino-n-hexanoic acid (epsilon ACA), a compeptitive inhibitor of basic carboxypeptidases, selectively limits trypsin cleavage of pro-pCPB. In the presence of epsilon ACA, trypsin cleavage at Arg-330 is significantly limited while the cleavage at Arg-92 is unaffected. Using this approach, active pCPB can now be obtained. Kinetic characterization shows that pCPB behaves like other known basic carboxypeptidases. pCPB is more specific for substrates with C-terminal arginine than those with C-terminal lysine for all the natural and synthetic peptides tested. It also hydrolyzes the synthetic ester substrate more efficiently than the synthetic peptide substrate, especially at high pH. The active site Zn2+ can be replaced with other metals with change in substrate specificity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Monoamine oxidases A and B have identical flavin sites but different, although overlapping, amine substrate specificity. Reoxidation of ternary complexes containing substrate is much faster than of free enzyme, and the enhancement is greater in the A form than the B form. The oxidative half-reaction was studied with a variety of substrates to elucidate the specificity of the effect and to probe the different influences of substrate on the flavin reoxidation in the two forms of the enzyme. The second-order rate constant for the reoxidation was highest with monoamine oxidase A when kynuramine was the ligand (508x 103 M-' S-1 ) c ompared to 4 X lo3 M-' s-l in its absence. MPTP (166 X lo3 M-l s-' ) a lso enhanced reoxidation well, but indole substrates stimulated only poorly (e.g., tryptamine, 29 X lo3 M-l s-l; serotonin, 50 X lo3 M-l s-l). For the A form, the reduction of the flavin was rate-limiting in all cases. For the B form, reoxidation was rate-limiting for /3-phenylethylamine and contributed to the determination of the overall rate with several substrates. The ratio of the enhanced rate of oxidation to the rate of reduction correlated with the redox state of the enzyme in turnover experiments. All the observations are consistent with alternate paths of reoxidation, via either free enzyme or a reduced enzymesubstrate complex. The flux through each path is determined by the relative dissociation constants and rate constants.Mitochondrial monoamine oxidases catalyze the oxidative deamination of a variety of primary, secondary, and tertiary amines and are important in controlling the level of biogenic amines. The A and B forms of the enzyme have identical flavin sites (Nagy & Salach, 198 1) but quitedifferent although overlapping substrate specificities [for a review, see Singer (1991)]. Previous studies have shown that, for both the A and B forms, the reaction pathway can involve a ternary complex of reduced enzymesubstrate42 and that reoxidation of the complex with substrate can be two orders of magnitude faster than that of the free enzyme (Ramsay, 1991;Ramsay et al., 1987). The mechanism is determined by competition between the alternate pathways (Scheme I) on the basis of the relative rate constants and dissociation constants.The rate of the reoxidation of reduced MAO1 with MPTP as the ligand was quite different from that with the common primary amine substrates, namely, kynuramine for M A 0 A or benzylamine for M A 0 B. A range of natural and other substrates have now been studied to show that each substrate stimulates the oxidative half-reaction differently depending on its structure. The steady-state parameters and those for the reductive and oxidative half-reactions were studied to seek the basis for these differences between the amine substrates.The M A 0 A used in these experiments was the human liver form, which has been expressed in yeast (Weyler et al., 1990). The sequence of this human liver gene has been , CA 94121. Telephone: 415-752-9676; fax: Abbreviations: MPTP, l-methyl-4-phenyl-l,2,3,6-tetra...

Site-specific mutation of Glu-166 to Ala in beta-lactamase causes a millionfold reduction in catalytic activity toward both penicillin and cephalosporin substrates and results in the stoichiometric accumulation of a normally transient acyl-enzyme intermediate. Kinetic analysis indicated that substitution of Glu-166 by Ala leads to negligible effect on the acylation half of the reaction but effectively eliminates the deacylation reaction. Such differential effects on the rates of formation and breakdown of an enzyme-substrate intermediate have not been previously reported. Thus, unlike the situation for most transfer enzymes, e.g., the serine proteases, acylation and deacylation in beta-lactamase catalysis are not "mirror" images and must involve different mechanisms. The results suggest an explanation for the different catalytic activities between the beta-lactamases and the penicillin-binding proteins involved in bacterial cell-wall synthesis.

Glutamate-166 of the Bacillus licheniformis beta-lactamase was specifically mutated to aspartate and cysteine in order to probe the function of this residue in catalysis. In both cases, a large decrease in activity (kcat/Km was 3.5 x 10(-5) smaller for E166C and 1 x 10(-3) smaller for E166D than for the wild-type) was observed, although the kinetics for the two mutants were very different. The pH-rate profiles for E166D and E166C reflected the ionization characteristics of the new residue at site 166. This result indicates that the ionization of Glu-166 is responsible for the acidic limb of the kcat/Km-pH profiles, and suggests that the function of Glu-166 is that of a general base catalyst. The kinetics of the E166C mutant were investigated in detail. An initial burst was observed, whose amplitude was stoichiometric with the enzyme concentration, suggesting rate-limiting deacylation of the acyl-enzyme intermediate. However, further study revealed that in the presence of 0.5 M sodium sulfate, which stabilizes the native conformational state, the magnitude of the burst corresponded to 2 equiv of enzyme. This observation, in conjunction with the limited effect of the mutation on Km, indicated that the mutation resulted in a change in the kinetic mechanism from the linear, acyl-enzyme pathway to one with a branch leading to an inactive form of the acyl-enzyme.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)