Acid peptidases

Proteases, which can be classified as either peptidases or proteinases. These cleave polypeptide chains eventually into their component amino acids. Peptidases can be further classified as endopeptidases (which act on the main-chain amido groups along the polypeptide molecule) or as exopeptidases (which act only at terminal amino acid residues). 

As a highly specific acid peptidase, renin cleaves the decapeptide angiotensin I from the N-terminal end of the substrate angiotensinogen (Fig. 12). 

It has been shown that glyeine amides of aminobenzophenones are readily converted to the corresponding benzodiazepines in vivo. Peptides which terminate in such a moiety should thus serve as a benzodiazepine prodrug after hydrolysis by peptidases. One of the glycine residues in lorzafone (194)is presumably removed metabolicaUy in this manner to give a benzodiazepine precursor which spontaneously cyclizes. Acylation of benzophenone 190 with the trityl protected dipeptide 191, as its acid chloride 192, affords the amide 193. Removal of the trityl protecting group with acid yields lorzafone (194) [50]. 

Peptidases are enzymes that catalyse the hydrolysis of peptide bonds - the bonds between amino acids that are found in peptides and proteins. The terms protease , proteinase and proteolytic enzyme are synonymous, but strictly speaking can only be applied to peptidases that hydrolase bonds in proteins. Because there are many peptidases that act only on peptides, the term peptidase is recommended. Peptidases are included in subclass 3.4 of enzyme nomenclature [1,5]. 

Cleavage of a peptide bond is an example of a nucleophilic attack. The nucleophile in the reaction is either an activated water molecule or part of the side-chain of an amino acid, and peptidases are described as having either a water nucleophile or a protein nucleophile. Peptidases with a water nucleophile either utilize one or two metal ions as ligands for the water molecule, in which case the peptidase generally acts... 

Aspartic peptidases bind and activate water via two aspartic acid residues. 

Cleavage occur s at the scissile bond. Residues in the substrate towards the N-terminus are numbered PI, P2, P3, etc, whereas residues towards the C-terminus are numbered PI, P2, P3 etc. Cleavage occurs between PI and P1. For a peptidase with limited specificity, only the residue in PI or PI is important for specificity. A peptidase with an extended substrate binding site will have a preference for residues in other positions. For example cathepsin L prefers substrates with phenylalanine in P2 and arginine in PI. However, this is a preference only, and cathepsin L cleaves substrates after other amino acids. Caspase-3 has a preference for Asp in both P4 and PI, but it is unusual for substrate specificity to extend much further from the scissile bond. The peptidase with the most extended substrate specificity may be mitochondrial intermediate peptidase that removes an octopeptide targeting signal from the N-terminus of cytoplasmically synthesized proteins that are destined for import into the mitochondrial lumen. 

The action of a peptidase can be neutralized by an inhibitor. Some inhibitors are very broad in their action and are capable of inhibiting many different peptidases, including peptidases of different catalytic types. Some inhibitors are assumed to be specific for a particular catalytic type, but can inhibit peptidases of different types. Leupeptin, for example, is widely used as an inhibitor of serine peptidases from family SI, but it is also known to inhibit cysteine peptidases from family Cl. Cysteine pqrtidase inhibitors such as iodoacetic acid interact with the thiol of the catalytic cysteine. However, this reduction can occur on any thiol group and can affect other, predominantly intracellular, peptidases with a thiol dependency. One example is thimet oligopepti-dase. Metal chelators such as EDTA can inhibit meta-llopeptidases, but can also affect peptidases that have a requirement for metal ions that is indq>endent of their catalytic activity, such as the calcium-dependent cysteine endopqrtidase calpain 1. 

Rawlings ND, Morton FR, Barrett AJ (2006) MEROPS the peptidase database. Nucleic Acids Res 34 D270-D272... 

Proteases (proteinases, peptidases, or proteolytic enzymes) are enzymes that break peptide bonds between amino acids of proteins. The process is called peptide cleavage, a common mechanism of activation or inactivation of enzymes. They use a molecule of water for this, and are thus classified as hydrolases. 

Neotame is an artificial sweetener designed to overcome some of the problems with aspartame. The dimethylbutyl part of the molecule was added to block the action of peptidases, enzymes that break the peptide bond between the two amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine. This reduces the availability of phenylalanine, eliminating the need for a warning on labels directed at people who cannot properly metabolize phenylalanine. 

However, most natural peptides are composed of L-form a-amino acids and because of the ubiquitous prevalence of peptidases they have limited biostability, and consequently low bioavailability. Thus, a novel field of peptidomimetics has emerged in drug discovery, in attempts to design non-peptide compounds mimicking the pharmacophore and thus the activity of the original peptide. 

Other interesting examples of proteases that exhibit promiscuous behavior are proline dipeptidase from Alteromonas sp. JD6.5, whose original activity is to cleave a dipeptide bond with a prolyl residue at the carboxy terminus [121, 122] and aminopeptidase P (AMPP) from E. coli, which is a prohne-specific peptidase that catalyzes the hydrolysis of N-terminal peptide bonds containing a proline residue [123, 124]. Both enzymes exhibit phosphotriesterase activity. This means that they are capable of catalyzing the reaction that does not exist in nature. It is of particular importance, since they can hydrolyze unnatural substrates - triesters of phosphoric acid and diesters of phosphonic acids - such as organophosphorus pesticides or organophosphoms warfare agents (Scheme 5.25) [125]. 

PROTEASES PEPTIDASES DEGRADE PROTEINS TO AMINO ACIDS... 

Peptide synthesis from y9-amino acids is particularly attractive for first feasibility micro-reactor tests as there are no chiral centers which may complicate analysis of the products [5, 88]. y0-Peptides are also attractive owing to their stmctural and biological properties, especially concerning the stability versus degradation by peptidases as compared with their a-analogues (see original citations in [5]). 

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