Procongopain from Trypanosoma congolense Is Processed at Basic pH: An Unusual Feature among Cathepsin L-Like Cysteine Proteases
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C. Serveau
Abstract
Congopain, the major cysteine protease from Trypanosoma congolense, is synthesized as an inactive zymogen, and further converted into its active form after removal of the proregion, most probably via an autocatalytic mechanism. Processing of recombinant procongopain occurs via an apparent one-step or a multistep mechanism depending on the ionic strength. The auto-activation is pH-dependent, with an optimum at pH 4.0, and no activation observed at pH 6.0. After addition of dextran sulfate (10 ug/ml), an approx. 20-fold increase of processing (expressed as enzymatic activity) is observed. Furthermore, in the presence of dextran sulfate, procongopain can be processed at pH 8.0, an unusual feature among papainlike enzymes. Detection of procongopain and trypanosomal enzymatic activity in the plasma of T. congolenseinfected cattle, together with the capacity of procongopain to be activated at weakly basic pH, suggest that procongopain may be extracellularly processed in the presence of blood vessel glycosaminoglycans, supporting the hypothesis that congopain acts as a pathogenic factor in host-parasite relationships.
Copyright © 2003 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
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Articles in the same Issue
- Vito Turk – 30 Years of Research on Cysteine Proteases and Their Inhibitors
- Family C1 Cysteine Proteases: Biological Diversity or Redundancy?
- Molecular Regulation of Human Cathepsin B: Implication in Pathologies
- Caspases and Neuronal Development
- Structural Basis of the Matrix Metalloproteinases and Their Physiological Inhibitors, the Tissue Inhibitors of Metalloproteinases
- Managing Peptidases in the Genomic Era
- Insights into the Roles of Cathepsins in Antigen Processing and Presentation Revealed by Specific Inhibitors
- Cleavage Site Specificity of Cathepsin K toward Cartilage Proteoglycans and Protease Complex Formation
- Toward Computer-Based Cleavage Site Prediction of Cysteine Endopeptidases
- Isolation and Characterization of a Novel and Potent Inhibitor of Arg-Gingipain from Streptomyces sp. Strain FA-70
- Procongopain from Trypanosoma congolense Is Processed at Basic pH: An Unusual Feature among Cathepsin L-Like Cysteine Proteases
- Attenuated Kinin Release from Human Neutrophil Elastase-Pretreated Kininogens by Tissue and Plasma Kallikreins
- Effect of Plant Kunitz Inhibitors from Bauhinia bauhinioides and Bauhinia rufa on Pulmonary Edema Caused by Activated Neutrophils
- Revisiting Ubiquity and Tissue Specificity of Human Calpains
- The Calpastatin-Derived Calpain Inhibitor CP1B Reduces mRNA Expression of Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 and -9 and Invasion by Leukemic THP-1 Cells
- Heat Stress-Dependent DNA Binding of Arabidopsis Heat Shock Transcription Factor HSF1 to Heat Shock Gene Promoters in Arabidopsis Suspension Culture Cells in vivo
- T47-D Cells and Type V Collagen: A Model for the Study of Apoptotic Gene Expression by Breast Cancer Cells
