scholarly journals A marked gradation in active-centre properties in the cysteine proteinases revealed by neutral and anionic reactivity probes. Reactivity characteristics of the thiol groups of actinidin, ficin, papain and papaya peptidase A towards 4,4′-dipyridyl disulphide and 5,5′-dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoate) dianion

1983 ◽  
Vol 209 (3) ◽  
pp. 873-879 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Brocklehurst ◽  
S M Mushiri ◽  
G Patel ◽  
F Willenbrock

1. The kinetics of the reactions of the catalytic-site thiol groups of actinidin (the cysteine proteinase from Actinidia chinensis), ficin (EC 3.4.22.3), papain (EC 3.4.22.2) and papaya peptidase A (the other monothiol cysteine proteinase component of Carica papaya) with 4,4′-dipyridyl disulphide (4-Py-S-S-4-Py) and with 5,5′-dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoate) dianion (Nbs22-) were studied in the pH range approx. 6-10. These studies provided the pH-independent second-order rate constants (k) for the reactions of the two probe reagents with the catalytic-site thiolate anions each in the environment of a neutral histidine side chain where an active-centre carboxy group would be ionized. 2. The ratio R equal to kNbs22-/k4-Py-S-S-4-Py provides an index of the catalytic-site solvation properties of the four cysteine proteinases and varies markedly from one enzyme to another, being 0.80 for papaya peptidase A (0.86 for the model thiol, 2-mercaptoethanol), 29 for actinidin, 0.18 for ficin and 0.015 for papain. These differences appear to derive mainly from the response of the enzyme to the negative charge on Nbs22-. 3. Possible implications of these results for (a) mechanisms of cysteine proteinase catalysis and (b) the possibility of using series of functionally related enzymes in the study of mechanism are discussed.

1980 ◽  
Vol 189 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Brocklehurst ◽  
B S Baines ◽  
M S Mushiri

The active centres of chymopapains A and B (jointly designated EC 3.4.22.6) and papaya (Carica papaya L.) peptidase A were investigated by using 2,2′-dipyridyl disulphide and 5,5′-dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid) as thiol-specific reactivity probes. Whereas the first active-centre pKa values for chymopapain B and papaya peptidase A are less than 5, is as the case for papain (EC 3.4.22.2) and ficin (EC 3.4.22.3), that for chymopapain A is about 6.8. The reason why the reactions of thiols of pKa approx. 6.5 with 2.2′-dipyridyl disulphide are essentially pH-independent in the pH range around the thiol pKa is delineated. The value of the Brønsted coefficient (beta nuc.) for the reactions of thiolate ions with the 2,2′-dipyridyl disulphide monocation appears to be smaller than its value for the corresponding reactions with the neutral disulphide.


1985 ◽  
Vol 227 (2) ◽  
pp. 521-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Willenbrock ◽  
K Brocklehurst

The pH-dependences of kcat, Km and kcat./Km for the hydrolysis at 25 degrees C at I 0.1 of L-arginine 2-naphthylamide catalysed by cathepsin H from bovine spleen were determined in the pH range approx. 4-8. The pH-dependences of these kinetic parameters were determined also for the hydrolysis at 25 degrees C at I 0.1 of N-alpha-benzyloxycarbonyl-L-arginyl-L-arginine 2-naphthylamide catalysed by cathepsin B (EC 3.4.22.1) from bovine spleen in the pH range 7-8, which extends the studies in acidic media reported by Willenbrock & Brocklehurst [(1984) Biochem. J. 222, 805-814]. These results are discussed and related to those from the reactivity-probe kinetics reported in the preceding paper [Willenbrock & Brocklehurst (1985) Biochem. J. 227, 511-519] and to known structural features present in rat liver cathepsins B and H and in papain (EC 3.4.22.2) and actinidin (EC 3.4.22.14). Consideration of the kinetic data leads to the suggestion that in the cysteine proteinases rearrangement of intimate S-/ImH+ ion-pairs in catalytic sites is brought about by a combination of field effects in the immediate vicinity of the ion-pair and consequences of protonic dissociation of a group with pKa 5-6 remote from the catalytic site. The contributions of the two types of effect seem to differ from enzyme to enzyme. Of the four cysteine proteinases considered, only cathepsin B exerts an absolute requirement for the proton-deficient form of a group with pKa 5-6 for catalytic activity. Protonic dissociation with pKa 5-6 enhances catalytic activity in cathepsin H and in actinidin and appears to have little or no effect in papain. Only cathepsin B lacks a polar or negatively charged side chain in the residue analogous to Asp-158 in papain, and this is suggested to account for its total dependence on a protonic dissociation remote from the catalytic site.


1985 ◽  
Vol 227 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Willenbrock ◽  
K Brocklehurst

A procedure for the isolation of cathepsin B (EC 3.4.22.1) and of cathepsin H from bovine spleen involving covalent chromatography by thiol-disulphide interchange and ion-exchange chromatography was devised. The stabilities of both cathepsins in alkaline media are markedly temperature-dependent, and reliable kinetic data can be obtained at pH values up to 8 by working at 25 degrees C with a continuous spectrophotometric assay. Both enzyme preparations contain only one type of thiol group as judged by reactivity characteristics towards 2,2′-dipyridyl disulphide at pH values up to 8; in each case this thiol group is essential for catalytic activity. Cathepsin H was characterized by kinetic analysis of the reactions of its thiol group with 2,2′-dipyridyl disulphide in the pH range approx. 2-8 and the analogous study on cathepsin B [Willenbrock & Brocklehurst (1984) Biochem. J. 222, 805-814] was extended to include reaction at pH values up to approx. 8. Cathepsin H, like the other cysteine proteinases, was shown to contain an interactive catalytic-site system in which the nucleophilic character of the sulphur atom is maintained in acidic media. The considerable differences in catalytic site characteristics detected by this two-protonic-state reactivity probe between cathepsin B, cathepsin H, papain (EC 3.4.22.2) and actinidin (EC 3.4.22.14) are discussed. Reaction with 2,2′-dipyridyl disulphide in acidic media, which is known to provide a rapid spectrophotometric active centre titration for many cysteine proteinases, is applicable to cathepsin H. This is useful because other active-centre titrations have proved unsuitable in view of the relatively low reactivity of the thiol group in cathepsin H.


1993 ◽  
Vol 296 (3) ◽  
pp. 563-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
L A Dalton ◽  
J O McIntyre ◽  
S Fleischer

(R)-3-Hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (BDH) is a phosphatidylcholine-requiring tetrameric enzyme with two thiol groups (SH-1 and SH-2) per protomer. By first protecting the more rapidly reacting thiol group (SH-1) with diamide [1,1′-azobis-(NN′-dimethylformamide), DM] to form DM(SH-1)BDH, SH-2 can be selectively derivatized by reaction with maleimide reagents such as 4-maleimido-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-piperidine-N-oxyl (MSL), which gives DM(SH-1)MSL(SH-2)BDH. Reduction with dithiothreitol (DTT) regenerates SH-1, yielding MAL(SH-2)BDH (where MAL is the diamagnetic reduction product of MSL-BDH and DTT). The enzymic activity of DM(SH-1)BDH is decreased to approx. 4% relative to the native purified enzyme, and the apparent Km for substrate, KmBOH, is increased approx. 100-fold. Reduction of DM(SH-1)BDH with DTT regenerates SH-1 and restores normal enzymic function. Modification of SH-2 with piperidinylmaleimide [MAL(SH-2)BDH] diminishes enzymic activity to approx. 35% of its original value, but has no significant effect on apparent KmBOH. The doubly derivatized enzyme, DM(SH-1)MSL(SH-2)BDH, has lower enzymic activity [about half that for DM(SH-2)BDH] and a yet higher apparent KmBOH than DM(SH-1)BDH. Derivatization of SH-2 with different maleimide reagents results in diminished activity approximately proportional to the size of the maleimide substituent, suggesting that this inhibition is steric. Whereas modification of SH-1 results in marked changes in kinetic parameters (increased apparent Km and reduced apparent Vmax), derivatization of SH-2 has a lesser effect on enzymic function. Thus SH-1 is postulated to be closer to the active centre than is SH-2, although neither is involved in catalysis, since: (1) the activity of the derivatized enzyme is not abolished; and (2) activity can be enhanced by increasing substrate (and cofactor) concentrations.


1984 ◽  
Vol 222 (3) ◽  
pp. 805-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Willenbrock ◽  
K Brocklehurst

Cathepsin B (EC 3.4.22.1) from bovine spleen and the analogous enzyme from rat liver were investigated at 25 degrees C at I0.1 in acidic media by kinetic study of (a) the reactions of their catalytic-site thiol groups towards the two-protonic-state reactivity probe 2,2′-dipyridyl disulphide and (b) their catalysis of the hydrolysis of N-alpha-benzyloxycarbonyl-L-arginyl-L-arginine 2-naphthylamide. Reactivity-probe kinetics showed that nucleophilic character is generated in the sulphur atom of cathepsin B by protonic dissociation with pKa 3.4, presumably to form an S-/ImH+ ion-pair. Substrate-catalysis kinetics showed that ion-pair formation is not sufficient to generate catalytic competence in cathepsin B, because catalytic activity is not generated as the pH is raised across pKa 3.4 but rather as it is raised across pKa 5-6 (5.1 for kcat; 5.6 for kcat./Km for the bovine spleen enzyme and 5.8 for kcat./Km for the rat liver enzyme). The implications of these results and of known structural differences between the catalytic sites of the rat liver enzyme and papain (EC 3.4.22.2) for the mechanism of cysteine-proteinase-catalysed hydrolysis are discussed.


1991 ◽  
Vol 280 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
C M Topham ◽  
E Salih ◽  
C Frazao ◽  
D Kowlessur ◽  
J P Overington ◽  
...  

1. A model of the three-dimensional structure of papaya proteinase omega, the most basic cysteine proteinase component of the latex of papaya (Carica papaya), was built from its amino acid sequence and the two currently known high-resolution crystal structures of the homologous enzymes papain (EC 3.4.22.2) and actinidin (EC 3.4.22.14). The method used a knowledge-based approach incorporated in the COMPOSER suite of programs and refinement by using the interactive graphics program FRODO on an Evans and Sutherland PS 390 and by energy minimization using the GROMOS program library. 2. Functional similarities and differences between the three cysteine proteinases revealed by analysis of pH-dependent kinetics of the acylation process of the catalytic act and of the reactions of the enzyme catalytic sites with substrate-derived 2-pyridyl disulphides as two-hydronic-state reactivity probes are reported and discussed in terms of the knowledge-based model. 3. To facilitate analysis of complex pH-dependent kinetic data, a multitasking application program (SKETCHER) for parameter estimation by interactive manipulation of calculated curves and a simple method of writing down pH-dependent kinetic equations for reactions involving any number of reactive hydronic states by using information matrices were developed. 4. Papaya proteinase omega differs from the other two enzymes in the ionization characteristics of the common (Cys)-SH/(His)-Im+H catalytic-site system and of the other acid/base groups that modulate thiol reactivity towards substrate-derived inhibitors and the acylation process of the catalytic act. The most marked difference in the Cys/His system is that the pKa for the loss of the ion-pair state to form -S-/-Im is 8.1-8.3 for papaya proteinase omega, whereas it is 9.5 for both actinidin and papain. Papaya proteinase omega is similar to actinidin in that it lacks the second catalytically influential group with pKa approx. 4 present in papain and possesses a catalytically influential group with pKa 5.5-6.0. 5. Papaya proteinase omega occupies an intermediate position between actinidin and papain in the sensitivity with which hydrophobic interaction in the S2 subsite is transmitted to produce changes in transition-state geometry in the catalytic site, a fact that may be linked with differences in specificity in P2-S2 interaction exhibited by the three enzymes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Soil Research ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 247 ◽  
Author(s):  
CK Tweneboah ◽  
DJ Greenland ◽  
JM Oades

The kinetics of the removal of iron, aluminium, and silicon from soils and clays in the pH range 0-3 have been studied using a number of oxides, clay minerals, and soils. At pH 1.5, aluminium is removed but little iron or silicon. An initial rapid rate of aluminium extraction is followed by a slower constant rate. The rapidly released aluminium is extracted in approximately 12 hr using 0.5M CaCl2 at pH 1.5.reatment of a range of soils and clays by this method reduced the positive charge developed at low pH very substantially but had little effect on the negative charge. It is suggested that the positive charges in the soils studied are mostly due to the 'active' aluminium oxides.


1982 ◽  
Vol 205 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
B S Baines ◽  
K Brocklehurst

1. The proteinase papaya peptidase A, one of the major components of the latex of Carica papaya L., was shown to contain 1 thiol group per molecule; this thiol group is essential for catalytic activity and is part of the catalytic site. 2. The usefulness of two-protonic-state reactivity probes coupled with modification/activity-loss data in assigning a thiol group as an integral part of the catalytic site as against merely ‘essential’ for activity is discussed. 3. The active centre of papaya peptidase A was investigated by using 2,2′-dipyridyl disulphide and 4-chloro-7-nitrobenzofurazan as reactivity probes. The presence in the enzyme in weakly acidic media of an interactive system containing a nucleophile S atom (pKI3.9,pKII7.9) was demonstrated. 5. Papaya peptidase A resembles ficin (EC 3.4.22.3) and actinidin (the cysteine proteinase from Actinidin chinenis) in that it does not appear to possess a carboxy group able to influence the reactivity of the thiol group by change of ionization state at pH values of about 4, a situation that contrasts markedly with that which obtains in papain. 6. Implications of the results for possible variations in cysteine proteinase mechanism are discussed.


1979 ◽  
Vol 183 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Brocklehurst ◽  
J. Paul G. Malthouse ◽  
Michael Shipton

A method is proposed by which site-specific reactivity probes that exhibit different reactivities in two ionization states can be used to detect association–activation phenomena that involve repositioning of acid/base groups in enzyme active centres. The pH-dependences of the apparent second-order rate constants (k) for the reactions of the thiol group of papain (EC 3.4.22.2) with a series of two-protonic-state reactivity probes are compared. The short-chain probes, 2,2′-dipyridyl disulphide and n-propyl 2-pyridyl disulphide, react at pH6 in adsorptive complexes and/or transition states with geometries that do not permit hydrogen-bonding of the pyridyl nitrogen atom with the active-centre imidazolium ion, as evidenced by the rate minima at pH6 and the rate maxima at pH4 provided by reagent protonation. Only when the probe molecule, e.g. 4-(N-aminoethyl 2′-pyridyl disulphide)-7-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole [compound(III)], contains a long hydrophobic side chain is the reaction characterized by maximal rates at about pH6, as in the acylation step of the catalytic act (at pH6, kcompound III/k2,2′-dipyridyl disulphide ≃ 100). It is proposed that this striking difference in profile shape may result from binding of the hydrophobic side chain of compound (III) possibly in the S2-subsite of papain, which promotes a change in catalytic-site geometry involving repositioning of the imidazolium ion of histidine-159 and hydrogen-bonding with the N atom of the leaving group, as has been postulated to occur in the acylation step of substate hydrolysis.


2006 ◽  
Vol 396 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheraz Gul ◽  
Geoffrey W. Mellor ◽  
Emrys W. Thomas ◽  
Keith Brocklehurst

The temperature-dependences of the second-order rate constants (k) of the reactions of the catalytic site thiol groups of two cysteine peptidases papain (EC 3.4.22.2) and actinidin (EC 3.4.22.14) with a series of seven 2-pyridyl disulphide reactivity probes (R-S-S-2-Py, in which R provides variation in recognition features) were determined at pH 6.7 at temperatures in the range 4–30 °C by stopped-flow methodology and were used to calculate values of ΔS‡, ΔH‡ and ΔG‡. The marked changes in ΔS‡ from negative to positive in the papain reactions consequent on provision of increase in the opportunities for key non-covalent recognition interactions may implicate microsite desolvation in binding site–catalytic site signalling to provide a catalytically relevant transition state. The substantially different behaviour of actinidin including apparent masking of changes in ΔH‡ by an endothermic conformational change suggests a difference in mechanism involving kinetically significant conformational change.


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