Chymotrypsin protein hydrolysis

The specificity of chymotrypsin for hydrolysis of peptide bonds formed by the carbo,xyl groups of tyrosine, phenylalanine, and tryptophan has been recognized for some time (Green and Neurath, 1954 Desnuelle, 1960). Action on synthetic substrates of leucine (Goldenberg et al., 1951) and methionine (Kaufman and Neurath, 1949) also has been noted although at much slower rates than observed with the aromatic amino acid derivatives. When protein substrates or synthetic ester substrates are examined, it is evident that a variety of bonds can be hydrolyzed by chymotrypsin. Inagami and Sturtevant (1960) observed that chymotryptic hydrolysis of a-benzoyl-L-arginine ethyl ester, a typical trypsin substrate, occurred at a maximum rate which was 20% of that observed with trypsin. Several ester substrates, such as p-nitrophenylacetate (Hartley and Kilby, 1954), are also hydrolyzed. 

Specificity of Chymotrypsin for Hydrolysis of Peptide Bonds in Proteins and Polypeptides ... 

Some of the earliest discovered enzymes were given names ending with -in to indicate their protein composition. For example, three of the digestive enzymes that catalyze protein hydrolysis are named pepsin, trypsin, and chymotrypsin. 

Hydrolysis of amides by en2ymes is central to the digestion of proteins. The mechanism for protein hydrolysis by the enTyme chymotrypsin is presented in Section 24.11. 

Flounder fish protein Hydrolysis with a-chymotrypsin CAAP, VCSV Ko et al. (2013)... 

Chymotrypsin is a digestive enzyme and belongs to the family of serine proteases and catalyzes the hydrolysis of proteins and peptides. A part of the substrate is bound covalently to the enzyme. Chymotrypsin hydrolyzes esters as well even if this is physiologically not important. But this fact was of interest for mechanistic studies of chymotrypsin-catalyzed hydrolysis (Figure 23b). The rate-determining step is the hydrolysis of the enzyme-acetyl complex by... 

In 1979, Menger and Yamada were the first to report the a-chymotrypsin catalyzed hydrolysis of a synthetic ester, namely Af-acetyl-L-tryptophan methyl ester, in AOT/heptane reverse micelles [55]. Circular dichroism studies of a-chymo-trypsin containing reverse micelles at various water contents showed no major conformational changes of the protein. In this work, for the first time, increased... 

If the enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of peptide bond involves a simple reversible reaction as shown by Equation 2.5 then, indeed, the enzyme must catalyze the rate of formation of peptide bond from amino acids (i.e., lq,-step), provided the amino acids do not react irreversibly with the enzyme. Incidentally, if the function of serine proteases is to catalyze both the rate of hydrolytic cleavage and the rate of formation of protein peptide bond, then, probably, these enzymes cannot digest the proteins that we eat and, consequently, the results would have been disastrous for all protein-eating creatures — which certainly Nature will never allow. Although the mechanisms of most of the enzyme-catalyzed reactions are unknown, even at a very rudimentary level, the mechanism of a-chymotrypsin-catalyzed hydrolysis of peptide bond has been relatively well understood. The reaction has been almost ascertained to involve acylation and deacylation of enzyme as shown by Equation 2.6. Widely accepted mechanisms for acylation and deacylation steps are shown in Scheme 2.6 and Scheme 2.7. ... 

Chymotrypsin (Section 27 10) A digestive enzyme that cat alyzes the hydrolysis of proteins Chymotrypsin selectively catalyzes the cleavage of the peptide bond between the car boxyl group of phenylalanine tyrosine or tryptophan and some other ammo acid... 

All of this evidence supports the existence of tetrahedral intermediates in a-chymotrypsin-catalysed reactions, but it should be noted that O-exchange with water is not observed in deacylation of cinnamoyl- 0-chymotrypsin, in contrast with the hydrolysis of O-cinnamoyl-N-acetylserinamide where such exchange is detected (Bender and Heck, 1967). Lack of exchange in the enzyme reaction could reflect interactions of the tetrahedral intermediate with the protein. 

This enzyme [EC 3.4.21.62], a serine endopeptidase that evolved independently of chymotrypsin, contains no cys-teinyl residues. This enzyme catalyzes the hydrolysis of peptide bonds in proteins and has a broad specificity, with a preference for a large uncharged aminoacyl residue in the PI subsite. 

The digestive enzyme chymotrypsin has a serine in its active site that acts as a general base or proton acceptor during hydrolysis of peptide bonds in protein substrates (Figure 3-2). 

In subsequent years, much evidence has been adduced to support this mechanism. Alkaline phosphatase and, by analogy, other serine enzymes, are directly phosphorylated on serine serine phosphate is not an artifact (Kennedy and Koshland, 1957). In the presence of nitrophenyl acetate, chymotrypsin is acetylated on serine, and the resulting acetylchymotrypsin has been isolated (Balls and Aldrich, 1955 Balls and Wood, 1956). Similarly, the action of p-nitrophenyl pivalate gave rise to pivaloyl chymotrypsin, which could be crystallized (Balls et al., 1957). Neurath and workers showed that acetylchymotrypsin is hydrolyzed at pH 5.5, but that it is reversibly denatured by 8 M urea the denatured derivative is inert to hydrolysis and even to hydroxylamine, whereas the renatured protein, obtained by... 

Hydrolysis of peptides or proteins with acid yields a mixture of free a-amino acids. When completely hydrolyzed, each type of protein yields a characteristic proportion or mixture of the different amino acids. The 20 common amino acids almost never occur in equal amounts in a protein. Some amino acids may occur only once or not at all in a given type of protein others may occur in large numbers. Table 3-3 shows the composition of the amino acid mixtures obtained on complete hydrolysis of bovine cytochrome c and chymotrypsinogen, the inactive precursor of the digestive enzyme chymotrypsin. These two proteins, with very different functions, also differ significantly in the relative numbers of each kind of amino acid they contain. 

The preceding experiments prove that there is an intermediate on the reaction pathway in each case, the measured rate constants for the formation and decay of the intermediate are at least as high as the value of kcat for the hydrolysis of the ester in the steady state. They do not, however, prove what the intermediate is. The evidence for covalent modification of Ser-195 of the enzyme stems from the early experiments on the irreversible inhibition of the enzyme by organo-phosphates such as diisopropyl fluorophosphate the inhibited protein was subjected to partial hydrolysis, and the peptide containing the phosphate ester was isolated and shown to be esterified on Ser-195.1516 The ultimate characterization of acylenzymes has come from x-ray diffraction studies of nonspecific acylenzymes at low pH, where they are stable (e.g., indolylacryloyl-chymotrypsin),17 and of specific acylenzymes at subzero temperatures and at low pH.18 When stable solutions of acylenzymes are restored to conditions under which they are unstable, they are found to react at the required rate. These experiments thus prove that the acylenzyme does occur on the reaction pathway. They do not rule out, however, the possibility that there are further intermediates. For example, they do not rule out an initial acylation on His-57 followed by rapid intramolecular transfer. Evidence concerning this and any other hypothetical intermediates must come from additional kinetic experiments and examination of the crystal structure of the enzyme. 

You may have wondered how the proteolytic enzymes such as trypsin, pepsin, chymotrypsin, carboxypeptidase, and others keep from self-destructing by catalyzing their own hydrolysis or by hydrolyzing each other. An interesting feature of the digestive enzymes is that they are produced in an inactive form in the stomach or the pancreas—presumably to protect the different kinds of proteolytic enzymes from attacking each other or other proteins. 

Trypsin, chymotrypsin, and elastase—three members of the serine protease family—catalyze the hydrolysis of proteins at internal peptide bonds adjacent to different types of amino acids. Trypsin prefers lysine or arginine residues chymotrypsin, aromatic side chains and elastase, small, nonpolar residues. Carboxypeptidases A and B, which are not serine proteases, cut the peptide bond at the carboxyl-terminal end of the chain. Carboxypeptidase A preferentially removes aromatic residues carboxypeptidase B, basic residues. (Illustration copyright by Irving Geis. Reprinted by permission.)... 

Chymotrypsin Hydrolysis of proteins Bovine pancreas Zonal lysis in cataract removal... 

The properties and spatial arrangement of the amino acid residues forming the active site of an enzyme will determine which molecules can bind and be substrates for that enzyme. Substrate specificity is often determined by changes in relatively few amino acids in the active site. This is clearly seen in the three digestive enzymes trypsin, chymotrypsin and elastase (see Topic C5). These three enzymes belong to a family of enzymes called the serine proteases - serine because they have a serine residue in the active site that is critically involved in catalysis and proteases because they catalyze the hydrolysis of peptide bonds in proteins. The three enzymes cleave peptide bonds in protein substrates on the carboxyl side of certain amino acid residues. 

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