Protease

Abstract: A rapid and convenient method for peptide mapping of proteins has been developed. The technique, which is especially suitable for analysis of proteins that have been isolated from gels containg sodium dodecyl sulfate, involves partial enzymatic proteolysis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate and analysis of the cleavage products by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The pattern of peptide fragments produced is characteristic of the protein substrate and the proteolytic enzyme and is highly reproducible. Several common proteases have been used including chymotrypsin, Staphylococcus aureus protease, and papain.

Abstract: The protease responsible for the cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase and necessary for apoptosis has been purified and characterized. This enzyme, named apopain, is composed of two subunits of relative molecular mass (M(r)) 17K and 12K that are derived from a common proenzyme identified as CPP32. This proenzyme is related to interleukin-1 beta-converting enzyme (ICE) and CED-3, the product of a gene required for programmed cell death in Caenorhabditis elegans. A potent peptide aldehyde inhibitor has been developed and shown to prevent apoptotic events in vitro, suggesting that apopain/CPP32 is important for the initiation of apoptotic cell death.

Abstract: Proteases represent the class of enzymes which occupy a pivotal position with respect to their physiological roles as well as their commercial applications. They perform both degradative and synthetic functions. Since they are physiologically necessary for living organisms, proteases occur ubiquitously in a wide diversity of sources such as plants, animals, and microorganisms. Microbes are an attractive source of proteases owing to the limited space required for their cultivation and their ready susceptibility to genetic manipulation. Proteases are divided into exo- and endopeptidases based on their action at or away from the termini, respectively. They are also classified as serine proteases, aspartic proteases, cysteine proteases, and metalloproteases depending on the nature of the functional group at the active site. Proteases play a critical role in many physiological and pathophysiological processes. Based on their classification, four different types of catalytic mechanisms are operative. Proteases find extensive applications in the food and dairy industries. Alkaline proteases hold a great potential for application in the detergent and leather industries due to the increasing trend to develop environmentally friendly technologies. There is a renaissance of interest in using proteolytic enzymes as targets for developing therapeutic agents. Protease genes from several bacteria, fungi, and viruses have been cloned and sequenced with the prime aims of (i) overproduction of the enzyme by gene amplification, (ii) delineation of the role of the enzyme in pathogenecity, and (iii) alteration in enzyme properties to suit its commercial application. Protein engineering techniques have been exploited to obtain proteases which show unique specificity and/or enhanced stability at high temperature or pH or in the presence of detergents and to understand the structure-function relationships of the enzyme. Protein sequences of acidic, alkaline, and neutral proteases from diverse origins have been analyzed with the aim of studying their evolutionary relationships. Despite the extensive research on several aspects of proteases, there is a paucity of knowledge about the roles that govern the diverse specificity of these enzymes. Deciphering these secrets would enable us to exploit proteases for their applications in biotechnology.

Abstract: Several systems have been developed to allow for rapid and efficient purification of recombinant proteins expressed in bacteria. The expression of polypeptides in frame with glutathione S-transferase (GST) allows for purification of the fusion proteins from crude bacterial extracts under nondenaturing conditions by affinity chromatography on glutathione agarose ( D. B. Smith and K. S. Johnson, 1988 , Gene67, 31–40). This vector expression system has also incorporated specific protease cleavage sites to facilitate proteolysis of the bacterial fusion proteins. In our hands, the cleavage of these fusion proteins at a thrombin cleavage site proceeded slowly. To facilitate the cleavage of fusion proteins, we have introduced a glycine-rich linker (glycine kinker) containing the sequence P·G·I·S·G·G·G·G·G located immediately following the thrombin cleavage site. This glycine kinker greatly increases the thrombin cleavage efficiency of several fusion proteins. The introduction of the glycine kinker into fusion proteins allows for the cleavage of the fusion proteins while they are attached to the affinity resin resulting in a single step purification of the recombinant protein. More than 2 mg of the highly purified protein was obtained from the equivalent of 100 ml of bacterial culture within a few hours when a protein tyrosine phosphatase was employed as a test protein. The vector, pGEX-KG, has also been modified to facilitate cloning of a variety of cDNAs in all reading frames and has been successfully used to express several eukaryotic proteins.

Abstract: Mammalian cells contain two distinct proteolytic pathways that are involved in different aspects of protein breakdown. Proteins that enter the cell from the extracellular milieu (such as receptor-mediated endocytosed proteins) are degraded in lysosomes. Lysosomal degradation of intracellular proteins occurs mostly under stressed conditions. Nonlysosomal mechanisms are responsible for the highly selective turnover of intracellular proteins that occurs under basal metabolic conditions, but also for some aspects of degradation of intracellular proteins under stress. An important nonlysosomal proteolytic pathway is the ubiquitin system in which proteins are degraded by a 26s protease complex following conjugation by multiple molecules of ubiquitin. The “catalytic core” of the complex is a 20s protease complex also known as the proteasome. Three recent papers, describing three apparently independent biological processes, highlight the role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system as a major, however selective, proteolytic and regulatory pathway. Using specific inhibitors to the proteasome, Rock et al. (1994) demonstrate a role for this protease in the degradation of the major bulk of cellular proteins, but also in specific processing and subsequent presentation of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class l-restricted antigens. A previous study by the same researchers (Michalek et al., 1993) showed that antigen processing requires the ubiquitin-activating enzyme, El, the first enzyme in the ubiquitin pathway cascade. Thus, it appears that antigen processing is both ubiquitin dependent and proteasome dependent. Palombella et al. (1994) show that maturation of ~105 NF-~6 precursor into the active ~50 subunit of the transcriptional activator also proceeds in a ubiquitin- and proteasomedependent manner. Furthermore, inhibitors to the proteasome block degradation of h&a and thus prevent tumor necrosis factor a (TNFa)-induced activation of mature NFKB and its entry into the nucleus. The two studies clearly demonstrate that the ubiquitin-proteasome system is involved not only in complete destruction of its protein substrates, but also in limited proteolysis and posttranslational processing in which biologically active peptides or fragments are generated. Treier et al. (1994) show that the unstable c-Jut% but not the stable v-Jun, is multiubiquitinated and degraded. The escape of the oncogenic v-Jun from ubiquitin-dependent degradation suggests a novel route to malignant transformation. Presented here is a review of the components, mechanisms of action, and cellular physiology of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway.