Characterisation of a highly specific, endogenous inhibitor of cysteine protease from Staphylococcus epidermidis, a new member of the staphostatin family
AbstractStaphostatins, a novel family of cysteine protease inhibitors with a unique mechanism of action and distinct protein fold has recently been discovered. In this report we describe the properties ofStaphylococcus epidermidisstaphostatin A (EcpB), a new member of the family. As for other staphostatins, the recombinantS. epidermidisstaphostatin A exerted very narrow inhibitory specificity, limited to cysteine protease from the same species. The closely related proteases fromS. aureuscleaved the inhibitor at the reactive site peptide bond and inactivated it. The EcpB homologue,S. aureusstaphostatin A (ScpB), was also susceptible to proteolytic cleavage at the same site by nontarget cysteine proteases. Conversely,S. aureusstaphostatin B (SspC) was resistant to such proteolysis. The difference in the susceptibility of individual inhibitors to proteolytic cleavage at the reactive site suggests subtle variations in the mechanism of interaction with cysteine proteases.