No abstract

A novel effective procedure for the purification of cathepsin D inhibitor from potatoes (PDI) was developed. The amino acid sequence of PDI was determined by analysis of the cyanogen bromide digest and of the limited tryptic and chymotryptic digests of the protein. The inhibitor is a single polypeptide chain protein consisting of 188 residues with a simple sugar moiety attached to Asn-19. The tentative disulfide pairings are also suggested. The sequence data clearly indicate that PDI is homologous with the soybean trypsin inhibitor (STI) (Kunitz) family. The active center of PDI for trypsin inhibition was identified as Pro-Val-Arg-Phe in analogy to STI.

Three types of copolymers of N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA) were prepared which contain oligopeptide sequences: a) HPMA copolymers containing oligopeptide sidechains terminated with p-nitroaniline; b) soluble HPMA copolymers containing oligopeptide sequences in crosslinks connecting two poly(HPMA) chains; c) a hydrophilic gel, i. e. a threedimensional copolymer of HPMA containing an oligopeptide sequence in the crosslinks. These polymeric substrates (suitable as drug carriers) containing potentially degradable oligopeptide sequences were incubated with an intracellular proteolytic enzyme, bovine spleen cathepsin B. The degradation process of the substrates made it possible to reveal the relationship between the structure of oligopeptide sequences and their degradability. The results suggest an important role played by cathepsin B in the degradation of polymeric substrates investigated in this study under physiological conditions.

Thermitase, a thermostable alkaline proteinase, consists of a single polypeptide chain, containing 279 amino acid residues (MI = 28 369). The enzyme shows remarkable structural features of proteinases of the subtilisin type as shown by pronounced sequential homologies. The amino acid replacements, insertions and deletions observed when the amino acid sequence of the enzyme is compared with the sequences of several subtilisins are discussed with respect to substrate specificity and expected tertiary structure. The existence of a cysteinecontaining subgroup of subtilisin-like proteinases is postulated.Thermitase Subtilisin Amino acid sequence Homology Secondary structure prediction Cysteine-containing subtilisin-like proteinase

Comparison of the three-dimensional structure of bovine chymosin with the structures of homologous aspartic proteinases complexed with peptide inhibitors shows that Val111 in chymosin occupies a position between the specificity subsites S1 and S3. A mutation corresponding to Val111 to Phe has been introduced in an intermediary plasmid construct of prochymosin by bridging its unique restriction sites by a synthetic mutant oligonucleotide duplex. A prochymosin fusion product was expressed in Escherichia coli in such a way that the extension and substitution of the propart does not interfere with the activation of the zymogen. After activation of the crude prochymosin, the enzyme was purified by affinity chromatography on Sepharose with V-dL-P-F-F-V-dL as ligand. This procedure provided large amounts of pure protein as judged by FPLC, the activity/protein ratio, and SDS-PAGE. The enzymatic properties were determined by using a variety of peptide substrates and inhibitors; KM values for the mutant enzyme were approximately twice those of the wild type, but the kcat values were little changed. The mutant enzyme was crystallized, X-ray data were collected to 2.0-A resolution by using a FAST area detector, and the structure was solved by using difference Fourier methods and refined to an R factor of 19.5%. The mutation leads to only local changes in conformation, with the phenylalanine side chain occupying part of the S1 and S3 pockets. This accounts for the increased KM of this mutant for a substrate with a large phenylalanine side chain at P1. It is also consistent with the higher affinity of the mutant for an inhibitor with small side chains at P1 and P3 when compared with the wild-type enzyme.