Chymotrypsinogen bonds

FIGURE 16.16 Comparison of the amino acid sequences of chymotrypsinogen, trypsino-gen, and elastase. Each circle represents one amino acid. Nmnbering is based on the sequence of chymotrypsinogen. Filled circles indicate residues that are identical in all three proteins. Disnlfide bonds are indicated in yellow. The positions of the three catalytically important active-site residues (His, Asp °-, and Ser ) are indicated. 

The proteases are secreted as inactive zymogens the active site of the enzyme is masked by a small region of its peptide chain, which is removed by hydrolysis of a specific peptide bond. Pepsinogen is activated to pepsin by gastric acid and by activated pepsin (autocatalysis). In the small intestine, trypsinogen, the precursor of trypsin, is activated by enteropeptidase, which is secreted by the duodenal epithelial cells trypsin can then activate chymotrypsinogen to chymotrypsin, proelas-tase to elastase, procarboxypeptidase to carboxypepti-dase, and proaminopeptidase to aminopeptidase. 

Protein digestion occurs in two stages endopeptidases catalyse the hydrolysis of peptide bonds within the protein molecule to form peptides, and the peptides are hydrolysed to form the amino acids by exopeptidases and dipeptidases. Enteropeptidase initiates pro-enzyme activation in the small intestine by catalysing the conversion of trypsinogen into trypsin. Trypsin is able to achieve further activation of trypsinogen, i.e. an autocatalytic process, and also activates chymotrypsinogen and pro-elastase, by the selective hydro-... 

Support for this concept is provided by H NMR studies which have identified a downfield resonance of the hydrogen-bonded proton in this pair at 18 ppm in chymotrypsinogen and chymotrypsin at low pH and at 14.9-15.5 ppm at high pH values.246 247 Similar resonances are seen in the a-lytic protease,248 in sub-tilisin,249 in adducts of serine proteases with boronic acids250 251 or peptidyl trifluoromethyl ketones,252 in alkylated derivative of the active site histidine,253 and in molecular complexes that mimic the Asp-His pair in the active sites of serine proteases.254... 

Some of the serine proteases are stored in the pancreas as inactive precursors that may be activated by proteolysis. Trypsinogen, for example, is converted to trypsin by the removal of the N-terminal hexapeptide on the cleavage of the bond between Lys-6 and Ile-7 by enterokinase. Chymotrypsinogen is activated by the tryptic cleavage of the bond between Arg-15 and He-16. (In this case, further proteolysis by the chymotrypsin that is released during the activation leads to the different forms of the enzyme—Figure 16.5.)... 

The resonances of protons in hydrogen bonds may be shifted downfield to such an extent that they may be observed in H20 solutions. The proton between Asp-102 and His-57 in chymotrypsinogen, chymotrypsin, and other serine proteases has been located and its resonance found to titrate with a pKa of 7.518 (although the pKa is for the dissociation of the proton on the other nitnjjgen of the imidazole ring). ... 

The inactive precursors are called trypsinogen, pepsinogen, chymotrypsino-gen, and procarboxypeptidase. These precursors are converted to the active enzymes by hydrolytic cleavage of a few specific peptide bonds under the influence of other enzymes (trypsin, for example, converts chymotrypsinogen to chymotrypsin). The digestive enzymes do not appear to self-destruct, probably because they are so constructed that it is sterically impossible to fit a part of one enzyme molecule into the active site of another. In this connection, it is significant that chymotrypsin attacks denatured proteins more rapidly than natural proteins with their compact structures of precisely folded chains. 

Schematic diagrams of the amino acid sequences of chymotrypsin, trypsin, and elastase. Each circle represents one amino acid. Amino acid residues that are identical in all three proteins are in solid color. The three proteins are of different lengths but have been aligned to maximize the correspondence of the amino acid sequences. All of the sequences are numbered according to the sequence in chymotrypsin. Long connections between nonadjacent residues represent disulfide bonds. Locations of the catalytically important histidine, aspartate, and serine residues are marked. The links that are cleaved to transform the inactive zymogens to the active enzymes are indicated by parenthesis marks. After chymotrypsinogen is cut between residues 15 and 16 by trypsin and is thus transformed into an active protease, it proceeds to digest itself at the additional sites that are indicated these secondary cuts have only minor effects on the enzymes s catalytic activity. (Illustration copyright by Irving Geis. Reprinted by permission.)...

Many enzymes are synthesized as inactive zymogens and are activated only after secretion from their site of synthesis and storage. Activation is achieved by cleavage of one or more peptide bonds. A standard example is the secretion of trypsinogen and chymotrypsinogen from the pancreas into the gas-... 

In the duodenum, the pancreatic zymogens, trypsinogen, chymotrypsinogen, proelastase and procarboxypeptidase are converted into active enzymes by enteropeptidase and trypsin, as shown in Fig. 15-6. The activation of all the zymogens involves cleavage of peptide bonds and removal of peptides, enabling conformational changes and formation of a functional active site. 

Chymotrypsinogen, a single polypeptide chain of 245 amino acid residues, is converted to a-chymotrypsin, which has three polypeptide chains linked by two of the five disulfide bonds present in the primary structure of chymotrypsinogen. tt- and S-chymotrypsin also have proteolytic activity. In contrast, the conversion of procarboxypeptidase to carboxypeptidase involves the hydrolytic removal of a single amino acid. 

Hutchens et al. (1969) determined the heat capacities of zinc insulin at 0 and 0.04 h and of chymotrypsinogen A at 0 and 0.107 h, from 10 to 310 K. For all samples the data were a smooth function of temperature, with no indication of a glass or phase transition at any temperature. The absence of a phase transition corresponding to the ice-liquid water transition is expected for low hydrations. These appear to be the only data in the literature that have been used to determine the entropy of a protein sample. Hutchens et al. (1969) calculated the standard entropy of formation of a peptide bond as 9.0—9.3 cal K mol" . 

The disulfide bond in a-chymotrypsinogen A is reduced about 2.3-fold faster using BMS and DMH than by DTT (Table I). A maximum of 0.75 disulfide group per a-chymotrypsinogen A molecule was reduced under the reduction conditions. The apparent rate constant for the reduction of disulfide bond in... 

Chymotrypsinogen Is Activated by Specific Cleavage of a Single Peptide Bond... 

How does cleavage of a single peptide bond activate the zymogen Key conformational changes, which were revealed by the elucidation of the three-dimensional structure of chymotrypsinogen, result from the cleavage of the peptide bond between amino acids 15 and 16. 

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