Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009. / Prepared for: Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology. Bibliography: leaves 69-85. Also available online via the Internet.

Various alkaline proteases derived from skeletal muscle have been described by a number of researchers and have been purified to varying degrees. Such alkaline proteases may play an important role in the metabolism of myofibrillar and other muscle proteins and as such deserve to be fully characterised. In this study, a major myofibrillar alkaline protease was purified from rat skeletal muscle. The enzyme degraded both denatured casein and azocasein and had a pH optimum of 9,0. The molecular mass was 32 250 ± 650. The presence of a second, minor alkaline protease was demonstrated using three different separation techniques as well as by inhibitor studies. The major protease was insensitive to inhibition by pepstatin and leupeptin, whilst 90 % of the activity was expressed in the presence of 2 mM EGTA. A moderate degree of inhibition was observed in the presence of soybean trypsin inhibitor and the protease was markedly sensitive to chymostatin. A similar alkaline protease was partially purified from rat cardiac muscle using the same purification procedure. Incubation of washed myofibrils in the presence of sodium pyrophosphate released a factor into the supernatant, the removal of which facilitated the separation of myofibrillar alkaline protease from the myofibrils. The factor appeared to be necessary for binding of the alkaline protease to the myofibrillar proteins but its removal did not disrupt the binding of proteolytic activity already attached to the myofibrillar proteins. An inhibitor of myofibrillar alkaline protease was demonstrated which is, in principle, capable of playing an important regulatory role in controlling the activity of these enzymes and thereby of myofibrillar protein catabolism.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Anatomy)) -- Mahidol University, 1970.

Due to the high resistance of the spores, the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae is the most dangerous bacterial pathogen of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Thanks to its biological properties and restricted pathogenicity, this bacterium can be used as a model organism to study gram positive sporulating aerobic rods. This work is focused on completing information about secreted proteases of this bacterium and in a study of proteases bound in a spore structure. MYPGP medium was used for the cultivation of P. larvae. In this medium, lysis of the culture was shown after 40 hours of cultivation. The pH of the medium decreased below 6.4 by lysis. The induction of temperate bacteriophage BLA was detected as a causative agent of this lysis. A new sporulation medium called HCBB agar was proposed for the sporulation of P. larvae. In comparison with HCBB agar with MYPGP agar by 31 strains of P. larvae stored in our collection, HCBB agar was evaluated as an appropriate sporulation medium with a median of sporulatin 4.2 ' 106 spores per cm2 in aerobic conditions and 5.65 ' 106 spores per cm2 in aerobic conditions with 10 % CO2. For purification of the secreted proteases, a one-day culture incubated at room temperature was used. Optimal purification of 87/74 kDa and 42/40 kDa proteases was observed after application of this...

Using proteolytic probes, the pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase (EC 1.6.1.1) from Escherichia coli was analyzed for its native topography in the cytoplasmic membrane. Before analyses could be performed, the isolation of transhydrogenase-enriched ISO (inside-out) cytoplasmic membrane vesicles was accomplished by modification of the procedure followed by Clarke (Clarke, D. M. and Bragg, P. D. (1985) Eur. J. Biochem. 149, 517-523) in purifying the enzyme from overexpressing E.coli JM83pDC21 cells. Two major changes were made. One was that the solubilization of the bacterial membrane and subsequent purification steps were omitted. The other was the separation of outer membranes from the cytoplasmic membrane preparation by sucrose gradient density centrifugation. This was essential owing to the contaminating presence of a 30 kD protein in the outer membrane of the original preparation. Transhydrogenase-enriched RSO (right-side-out) membrane vesicles were isolated by a different procedure using lysozyme-mediated breakage of E.coli spheroplasts and subsequent vesicular reformation. To identify possible transhydrogenase fragments arising from proteolytic cleavage, anti-E.coli transhydrogenase polyclonal antibodies were generated in rabbits. Two sets of polyclonal antibodies were produced. One set cross-reacted with both the α (52 kD) and β (48 kD) subunits of the transhydrogenase. The other reacted with the α subunit only. Trypsin and proteinase K were the main proteolytic probes used against both ISO and RSO cytoplasmic membrane vesicles, although chymotrypsin was also used in preliminary experiments with ISO membrane vesicles. Identification of fragments resulting from proteolytic cleavage of the enzyme was obtained using anti-transhydrogenase antibodies and by N-terminal sequencing and/or C-terminal sequencing. In some of these experiments, isolation of the proteolytic fragments was necessary prior to analysis. This was done using a number of different methods. The particular methods applied, which included column chromatography strategies and elution procedures from SDS-Polyacrylamide gels, depended on the type of analysis carried out. The analyses indicated that the α subunit has at least a 41 kD sequence extending from its N-terminus which is exposed to the cytoplasmic side of the membrane. This sequence may contain an active site of the enzyme. This is suggested by the binding of this fragment to a NAD-affinity column. The membrane-imbedded region of the α subunit anchoring the 41 kD region predicted by hydropathy plotting (Clarke, D. M., Loo, Tip W., Gilliam, S. and Bragg, P. D. (1986), Eur. J. Biochem. 158, 647-653) could not be detected by our methods. Susceptible tryptic cleavage sites along the 41 kD region were identified by partial proteolysis and may reflect areas in the subunit's tertiary or quaternary structure that are exposed to the surrounding medium. Major cleavage sites were at arg₁₅, Iys₂₂₇, Iys₂₆₄, arg₂₆₈, Iys₂₇₅, arg₃₅₅, and arg₃₆₁. There do not appear to be significant portions of the subunit protruding into the periplasm as neither trypsin nor proteinase K had any effect on the subunit in RSO-oriented membrane vesicles. Proteinase K experiments with ISO and RSO membrane vesicles suggest that a 20 kD portion of the β subunit is protected from cleavage and is imbedded in the membrane. The identity of this fragment could not be confirmed. Hydropathy analysis of the transhydrogenase gene-derived amino acid sequence (Clarke, D. M., Loo, Tip W., Gilliam, S. and Bragg, P. D. (1986), Eur. J. Biochem. 158, 647-653) suggests that this could be a sequence extending from the N-terminus of the β subunit. This is a hydrophobic sequence containing 7 possible transmembranous helices and having a theoretical molecular weight in the range of 20 kD. The proteinase K results also indicate that the rest of the β subunit is exposed to the cytoplasmic side of themembrane rather than the periplasmic side. The results obtained here are consistent with hydropathy predictions made with regard to this subunit. In addition, two different experiments indicate that an α-α subunit interaction may be present in the oligomeric structure of the membrane-bound enzyme (Hou, C, Potier, M. and Bragg, P. D. (1990), Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1018, 61-66). Substrates of the enzyme did not appear to affect the transhydrogenase's general conformation upon binding as detected by experiments using partial tryptic proteolysis. Partial trypsinolysis also revealed that selective detergent extraction of transhydrogenase-enriched ISO vesicles with Triton X-100 and sodium cholate did not affect the overall conformation of the membrane-bound enzyme despite greatly reducing the enzymatic activity. / Medicine, Faculty of / Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of / Graduate

This study purposes to examine extracellular proteases of the anaerobic rumen bacterium, Bacteroides amylophilus H-18. An enzyme was isolated and purified from 29 litres of 23 hr cell-free culture supernatant using DEAE Sephadex A-50, Sephadex G-200 and isoelectrofocusing techniques. Although proteolytic activity in the supernatant had a peak of activity at pH 6.7, there was activity at pH values from 4.5 to 11.5. Therefore, an attempt was made to purify the pH 6.7 activity and to follow the activity at other pH values as an index of purity. It was found that separation of the activities at different pH values was not achieved, even though the enzyme was purified 1265 times. Gel filtration of this purified material revealed the presence of two proteases, one of 60,000 and the other of 30,000 molecular weight. Since these enzymes were otherwise identical, they could have represented the monomeric and dimeric forms of a single protein. If the protease of 30,000 molecular weight was separated and resubjected to gel filtration, protease activity of molecular weight 60,000 reappeared. Ultracentrifugation of the 30,000 molecular weight protease demonstrated only one component. Therefore, if the two forms were in equilibrium, it appeared that the dimer was the more stable form of the enzyme. The purified protease did not contain cysteine, so that any tertiary structure in the enzyme could not involve disulfide bridges. All attempts to dissociate the dimeric into the monomeric form were unsuccessful. Examination of the inhibition of Nα benzoyl-L-arginine methyl ester esterase and protease activities with Nα tosyl-L-chloromethane revealed a complete inhibition of esterase activity at pH 8.0 but only a 30% inhibition of protease activity at the same pH, suggesting that more than one enzyme was responsible for the proteolytic activity exhibited by the purified enzyme. Because it was not possible to achieve separation of proteolytic activities at different pH values after a 1265 times purification, it must be assumed that if there are actually different proteases present they must have very similar structures. / Science, Faculty of / Microbiology and Immunology, Department of / Graduate

In the first chapter, sodium tetrathionate (TT), a sulfhydryl blocking agent, is assessed for its ability to protect the proteolytic activity (PA) of papaya latex during air, sun or vacuum drying, and of crude papain during storage. By means of Taguchi's L₂₇ (3¹³) fractional factorial design, it was found that the addition of 1% TT significantly increased the retention of PA of papaya latex when it was air dried at a temperature of 55°C. This protection of PA was found to be 23% higher than the one given by the addition of 1% sodium metabisulfite, the compound commonly used in the commercial processing of papaya latex. When drying was carried out either under 27 inches vacuum at 50°C or in the sun, the protective effect of TT on the PA was not significantly different from that of metabisulfite. The PA of crude papain during storage at room temperature was also protected by TT. A loss of 20% of the original PA occurred over a period of 13 wk when crude papain contained 1% TT, compared to a loss of 45% when the crude enzyme preparation contained 1% metabisulfite. In the same chapter five different oxidants for synthesis of TT from thiosulfate are compared, namely: iodine, hydrogen peroxide, ferric chloride, cupric sulfate and sodium vanadate. The results indicated that hydrogen peroxide or sodium vanadate were not only effective in the oxidation but also much less expensive than iodine, which is the most popular oxidant for the synthesis of TT. The results obtained in this chapter warrant the use of TT in the commercial production of commercial papain to prevent the destruction of the enzymes during harvesting, storage, transportation and processing. In the second chapter, chemical modification of pure papain by TT is discussed. Optimization techniques were applied for improving the precision of two methods used in this study: circular dichroism (CD) and proteolytic activity determination. Simplex optimization significantly improved repeatability and signal to noise ratio of the CD scan of papain. A new optimization approach, which was a combination of a central composite rotatable design and simplex optimization, was successfully applied to achieve maximum precision for the proteolytic activity assay of papain using casein as a substrate. This approach may also be applied to other analytical methods to improve the reliability of the experimental data. Influential factors in the inactivation of PA of papain by using TT and reactivation of the inactivated papain by cysteine were carried out using two Taguchi's L₁₆ (2¹⁵) fractional factorial designs. The results indicated that when inactivation was carried out at pH 6.8, with a reaction time of 5 min at 22°C, and a molar ratio of TT to papain of 10, the inactivation reaction was highly reversible upon addition of 20 mM cysteine. Although some interactions of the factors were significant, 70% reactivation was achieved in most cases. Analysis of UV absorbance, near-UV and far-UV CD spectra indicated that there were no major changes in the spectra in papain upon the chemical modification of the enzyme with TT. Secondary structure computed from far-UV CD spectra also demonstrated no significant changes upon this modification. Sulfhydryl data and pH-fluorescence profiles of the modified papain support the hypothesis that reversible blocking by TT results from binding with the single reactive cysteine residue present in papain. Quenching of the intrinsic fluorescence of papain when the modification was carried out using high molar ratios of TT to papain was suggestive of modification of tryptophan residues in the enzyme during the oxidation reaction with TT. Precipitation or insolubilization of pure papain, and of the proteins of papaya latex and commercial papain was observed upon the chemical modification with TT under certain conditions. Addition of β-mercaptoethanol and TT at levels of 100 mM and 50 mM, respectively, precipitated 90% of pure papain. Solubility studies together with electrophoretic analysis of the precipitated papain suggested formation of insoluble aggregates due to the insoluble aggregation as a result of inter-molecular disulfide bonds formation. TT was found to be a competitive inhibitor of both reversible and irreversible inhibition of the enzyme action, when carbobenzoxyglycine p-nitrophenyl ester was used as a substrate. The second order inactivation constant in the absence of substrate was computed to be 16,919 M⁻¹sec⁻¹, indicating that the reaction had a high rate. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

Due to the high resistance of the spores, the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae is the most dangerous bacterial pathogen of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Thanks to its biological properties and restricted pathogenicity, this bacterium can be used as a model organism to study gram positive sporulating aerobic rods. This work is focused on completing information about secreted proteases of this bacterium and in a study of proteases bound in a spore structure. MYPGP medium was used for the cultivation of P. larvae. In this medium, lysis of the culture was shown after 40 hours of cultivation. The pH of the medium decreased below 6.4 by lysis. The induction of temperate bacteriophage BLA was detected as a causative agent of this lysis. A new sporulation medium called HCBB agar was proposed for the sporulation of P. larvae. In comparison with HCBB agar with MYPGP agar by 31 strains of P. larvae stored in our collection, HCBB agar was evaluated as an appropriate sporulation medium with a median of sporulatin 4.2 ' 106 spores per cm2 in aerobic conditions and 5.65 ' 106 spores per cm2 in aerobic conditions with 10 % CO2. For purification of the secreted proteases, a one-day culture incubated at room temperature was used. Optimal purification of 87/74 kDa and 42/40 kDa proteases was observed after application of this...

During the activation and transferring process, E1 and E2 form a thioester-linkage with SUMOs. By using an in vitro assay, it is demonstrated that SENP1 is able to cleave the thioester-linkage between SUMO-1/SUMO-3 and E1/E2. This finding suggests that SUMO proteases regulate the sumoylation pathway, not only during maturation and deconjugation, but also in the E1 activation and E2 conjugation processes. / Recently, reactive oxygen species have been demonstrated to influence the equilibrium of sumoylation-desumoylation. Here, by in vitro assay, it is shown that H2O2 induces formation of inter-molecular disulfide linkage of human SUMO protease SENP1, via the active-site Cys 603 and a unique residue Cys 613. Such reversible modification confers higher enzyme activity recovery which is also observed in yeast Ulp1, but not in human SENP2, suggesting its protective role against irreversible sulfhydryl oxidation. The physiological relevance of the disulfide-linked dimer of SENP1 is also detected in cultured cells upon oxidative stress. The modifications are further verified by the crystal structures of Ulp1 with catalytic cysteine oxidized to sulfenic, sulfinic and sulfonic acids. The current findings suggest that, in addition to SUMO conjugating enzymes, SUMO proteases may act as redox sensors and effectors, which modulate the desumoylation pathway and allow immediate specific cellular responses to oxidative stress. / SUMO (small ubiquitin-related modifier) is a member of the ubiquitin-like protein family that is highly conserved in all eukaryotic organisms and regulates cellular function of a variety of target proteins. SUMO proteins are expressed in their precursor forms and precursor processing involves cleavage of the residues after the conserved 'GG' region by the hydrolytic activity of SUMO-specific protease. The exposed second glycine then forms a covalent bond with the epsilon-amino group of a substrate lysine residue at the psiKxE motif by a cascade of SUMO El, E2 and E3 ligases. As a reversible modification, SUMO proteases can cleave SUMOs from their substrates during de-conjugation process. / To date, four SUMO family members, SUMO-1, -2, -3 and -4 and six SUMO proteases, SENP1--3 and 5-7 (where SENP stands for sentrin-specific protease) have been identified in human. By characterizing the maturation reactions of SUMO-1, -2 and -3 catalyzed by SENP1, it is demonstrated that SENP1 contains the highest maturation efficiency for SUMO-1, followed by SUMO-2 and SUMO-3. By mutagenesis study, it is further identified that the two amino acids immediately after GG motif could influence the maturation efficiency of SENP1. By comparison with another investigation which showed the preference of the maturation reaction of SUMO-2 by SENP2, the results suggest that SUMO proteases with specific tissue distribution control the availability of different mature SUMOs in human. / To gain a deeper insight into the molecular basis of maturation and de-conjugation processes catalyzed by SENP1, it has been determined, at 2.8 A resolution, the X-ray structure of a complex between the catalytic domain of SENP1C(C603S) and matured SUMO-1. The structure shows that the substituted serine residue does not undergo any local structural rearrangements at the active site as observed in the previously solved SENP2/SUMO-1 complex structure. This finding suggests that SUMO proteases require a self-conformational change prior to the cleavage reaction, and further disclose the cleavage mechanism of the hydrolytic reactions catalyzed by SUMO proteases. Moreover, analysis of the interface of SENP1 and SUMO1 has identified four amino acids that are unique in SENP1 sequence and facilitate the interaction of SENP1 and SUMO-1. / Xu, Zheng. / "July 2007." / Advisers: Shannon Au Wing Ngor; Tzi-Bun Ng. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-01, Section: B, page: 0125. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-194). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

A proteína recombinante inibidora de serinoprotease denominada de Amblyomin-X foi obtida a partir de uma biblioteca de cDNA das glândulas salivares do carrapato Amblyomma cajannense, construída e utilizada para identificar um gene que codifica um inibidor de serinoprotease do tipo Kunitz. O Amblyomin-X inibe a formação da massa tumoral in vivo, no entanto o mecanismo envolvido neste efeito não está totalmente esclarecido. Visto que um dos mecanismos anti-carcinogênicos dos inibidores de serinoproteases é a inibição do processo de angiogênese, este trabalho foi delineado para avaliar as ações do Amblyomin-X sobre a angiogênese in vivo e sobre funções da célula endotelial envolvidas neste processo. A angiogênese in vivo foi estudada em modelo de câmara dorsal por microscopia intravital. Quarenta e oito horas após a implantação da câmara dorsal, os animais receberam tratamento tópico de salina ou de Amblyomin-X por 8 dias, com intervalos de 48 horas a cada dose (10, 100 ou 1000ng/mL). Os efeitos foram avaliados em condições basais e na vigência do crescimento tumoral (injeção de 1x105 células B16-F10 de melanoma murino no tecido subcutâneo). Adicionalmente, os efeitos do Amblyomin-X sobre a permeabilidade vascular foram avaliados pela mensuração espectrofotométrica da quantidade de corante extravasado no tecido dos animais após injeção intradérmica do fator de crescimento do endotélio vascular (VEGF) ou do Amblyomin-X. Uma série de estudos in vitro foram realizados em células endoteliais de linhagem de microcirculação (t-End) para avaliar os efeitos do Amblyomin-X (10, 100 e 1000ng/mL) sobre: 1) a migração destas células, usando modelos bidimensional (2D) de cicatrização in vitro e tridimensional (3D) em câmara de Boyden modificada, na ausência e frente ao fator de crescimento do endotélio vascular (VEGF; 100 ng/mL); 2) sobre a aderência em Matrigel® e 3) sobre a secreção de prostaglandina E2 (PGE2) e a produção de óxido nítrico (NO) por ensaio imunoenzimático e reação de Griess, respectivamente. Ademais, foram avaliados os efeitos do Amblyomin-X sobre a viabilidade das células B16-F10 (1x105) por citometria de fluxo. Os resultados obtidos mostram que a aplicação tópica de Amblyomin-X reduziu o número de vasos no tecido subcutâneo dorsal (10ng/mL = 21,7%; 100ng/mL= 35,7%; 1000ng/mL= 36,8% vs 1° dia de tratamento). O mesmo efeito foi observado na presença de células B16-F10 (1000ng/mL= 44,3% vs 1° dia de tratamento), além de uma redução no desenvolvimento da massa tumoral (1000ng/mL= 88% vs controle). O tratamento com Amblyomin-X reduziu a migração basal das células t-End no modelo 2D (10ng/mL=16,4%; 1OOng/mL=23, 1%; 1000ng/mL=26,8% vs controle) e 3D (10ng/mL=39,2%; 100ng/mL=49,4%; 1000ng/mL=50,4% vs controle); inibiu a adesão destas células endoteliais em Matrigel® (100ng/mL=46,4%; 1000ng/mL=48,4% vs controle); não alterou produção os mediadores químicos NO e PGE2 pelas células endoteliais; não modificou a permeabilidade vascular e não alterou a viabilidade das células de melanoma murino B16-F10. Em conjunto, os dados obtidos mostram que o Amblyomin-X inibe a formação de novos vasos em condições basais e na vigência de crescimento tumoral in vivo que este efeito pode estar relacionado à redução do desenvolvimento tumoral, uma vez que a concentração de Amblyomin-X que inibe a angiogênese não causou citotoxicidade às células tumorais in vitro. Além disso, os mecanismos envolvidos no processo de angiogênese podem ser decorrentes, pelo menos em parte, de prejuízos na migração e adesão das células endoteliais. / The recombinant serine protease inhibitor protein called Amblyomin-X was obtained from a cDNA library of the Amblyomma cajennense salivary glands constructed and used to identify a gene encoding a kunitz type serine protease inhibitor. Amblyomin-X presents inhibitory effect on tumoral mass formation in vivo. Nevertheless, the mechanisms involved in the effects have not been clarified. Considering that interference on angiogenesis process is one of the mechanisms responsible for the antitumor activity displayed by serine protease inhibitors, this project was undertaken to study the Amblyomin-X actions on this process and on related endothelial cell functions. In vivo angiogenesis was studied using dorsal chamber model associated to intravital microscopy. Forty eight hours after dorsal chamber implantation, the animals were topically treated with saline or Amblyomin-X during 8 days, with intervals at each 48hs (10, 100 ou 1000ng/mL). The effects were evaluated at basal conditions or during tumoral development (1x105 B16-F10 murine melanoma cells injected into subcutaneous tissue). In addition, the effects of Amblyomin-X on vascular permeability were evaluated by measuring the dye leakage into dorsal intradermic tissue after local injection of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) or Amblyomin-X, or both. In vitro assays were also performed using endothelial cells from microcirculation (t-End) and the effects of Amblyomin-X (10, 100 e 1000ng/mL) were studied on: 1) cell migration, using bidimensional (2D) and tridimensional (3D) models in modified Boyden chamber using chemotatic factor (VEGF100 ng/mL); 2) Matrigel® adherence and, 3) prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and nitric oxide (NO) secretion by enzymatic assay and Griess reaction, respectively. In addition, the Amblyomin-X toxicity was evaluated on the B16-F10 cells (1x105), using flow citometry. Results obtained show that topic application of Amblyomin-X reduced the number of vessels in the subcutaneous dorsal tissue (10ng/mL = 21,7%; 100ng/mL= 35,7%; 1000ng/mL= 36,8% vs 1st day of treatment). The same effect was observed in the presence of B16-F10 cells (1000ng/mL= 44,3% vs 1st day of treatment), simultanesouly to a significant reduction on tumoral mass development (1000ng/mL= 88% vs control). Amblyomin-X treatment impaired basal migration of tEnd in the 2D (10ng/mL=16,4%; 100ng/mL=23, 1%; 1000ng/mL=26,8% vs control) and 3D model (10ng/mL=39,2%; 100ng/mL=49,4%; 1000ng/mL=50,4% vs controle); inhibited the adhesion of t-End in Matrigel® (100ng/mL=46,4%; 1000ng/mL=48,4% vs control); did not alter the production of chemical mediators (PGE2 and NO); did not modify the vascular permeability and did not affect the B16-F10 cells viability. Taken together, data here obtained show that Amblyomin-X inhibited the new vessels formation under basal conditions, and during tumoral development. The effect could be related to the reduction of tumoral progress also detected in vivo, asthe schedule of treatment employed did not induce cancer cell toxicity. The mechanisms involved in the reduced angiogenesis may be related, at least in part, to the impaired endothelial cell migration and adhesion.