Papain active site

When the target enzyme is difficult to obtain, related enzymes could be used to provide insights in the design of novel ligands. For example, papain was used to design a class of potent cathepsin K inhibitors [33] spanning both sides of the papain active site. However, fine-tuning these inhibitors to produce more potent ones required the use of the crystal structure of cathepsin K itself [34],... 

FIGURE 14.11 The pH activity profiles of four different enzymes. Trypsin, an intestinal protease, has a slightly alkaline pH optimnm, whereas pepsin, a gastric protease, acts in the acidic confines of the stomach and has a pH optimmn near 2. Papain, a protease found in papaya, is relatively insensitive to pHs between 4 and 8. Cholinesterase activity is pH-sensitive below pH 7 but not between pH 7 and 10. The cholinesterase pH activity profile suggests that an ionizable group with a pK near 6 is essential to its activity. Might it be a histidine residue within the active site ... 

Exercise 5.3. Construct an EVB potential surface for a proton transfer from Cys-25 to an active site of water molecules in papain. 

However, diffusion of the reactive QM out of the enzyme active site is a major concern. For instance, a 2-acyloxy-5-nitrobenzylchloride does not modify any nucleophilic residue located within the enzyme active site but becomes attached to a tryptophan residue proximal to the active site of chymotrypsin or papain.23,24 The lack of inactivation could also be due to other factors the unmasked QM being poorly electrophilic, active site residues not being nucleophilic enough, or the covalent adduct being unstable. Cyclized acyloxybenzyl molecules of type a could well overcome the diffusion problem. They will retain both the electrophilic hydroxybenzyl species b, and then the tethered QM, in the active site throughout the lifetime of the acyl-enzyme (Scheme 11.1). This reasoning led us to synthesize functionalized... 

Schechter I, Berger A. On the size of the active site in proteases 1. Papain Biochem. Biophys Res Commun 1967 27 157-162. 

Thus the alkaline protease obtained from Bacillus licheniformis with a molecular mass of about 27 000 consists of 274 amino acid residues and has serine and histidine as active sites. Pancreatic trypsin with a molecular mass of about 24 000 contains 230 amino acid residues and also has serine and histidine as active sites. Papain (molecular mass about 23 000 and 211 amino acid residues) has cysteine and histidine as active sites. 

Finally, we come to enzyme models. D. W. Griffiths and M. L. Bender describe the remarkable catalytic property of certain cycloamyloses which act through formation of inclusion complexes, and in this respect recall the clefts containing the active sites in enzymes such as lysozyme and papain. 

N-Nitrosamines have been shown to be inhibitors of cysteine-containing enzymes. For example, dephostatin and other N-methyl-N-nitrosoanilines (1) were found to be inhibitors of the protein tyrosin phosphatases, papain and caspase [90,91]. Inhibition results from the S-nitrosation of the critical cysteine residues in the active sites of the enzymes by the nitrosamines. Compounds 6 and 7 have been found to inhibit thrombus formation in arterioles and venules of rats [92], while N-nitrosamide 9 exhibited vasodilation and mutagenicity as a result of NO release [93]. 

Cathepsin K (Cat K) is a member of the CA1 family of lysosomal cysteine proteases. This family is comprised of 11 human members (cathepsins B, C, F, H, K, L, O, S, V, W, Z) which share a common papain-like structural fold and a conserved active site Cys-Asn-His triad of residues [1-3]. These enzymes are synthesized as pre-pro-enzymes and are converted from the catalytically inactive zymogen into the active form in acidic lysosomal environment. In some cases, cathepsins are also secreted in the active form from cells. The sequence identity of... 

The first class of DUBs discovered, the ubiquitin C-terminal Aydrolases (UCHs), is a relatively small class vith only four members in humans and one in budding yeast. UCHs are cysteine proteases related to the papain family of cysteine proteases. Most UCHs consist entirely of a catalytic core that has a molecular mass of about 25 kDa, although Bapl and UCH37 have C-terminal extensions [21, 22], All UCHs have a highly conserved catalytic triad consisting of the active-site cysteine, histidine, and aspartate residues that are absolutely required for function [23]. 

In another approach the specificity of an existing enzyme has been changed. Levine and Kaiser (57) have transformed a protease, papain, into a redox enzyme by alkylation of the active site thiol with (27), a derivative of xanthine. 

The first and most extensively examined system was the hydrolytic enzyme papain. A variety of isomeric a-bromoacetylisoalloxazines were used to selectively tether a flavin moiety to the active site cysteine residue. Different isomeric linkages were proposed to allow orientations of the flavin relative to the substrate binding site which would favor reactions with a bound substrate [65]. 

CBH I 497 core-BA aa sequence in part from protein and in full from gene (cbhl), number and location of SS bridges, region of O-glycosylation, types of carbohydrate, papain cleavage site, hydrophobic cluster analysis, computer model of active site, 2D-NMR on a synthetic tail fragment, SAXS on whole CBH I, head domain and xylan/CBH I complex... 

The cysteinyl proteases include papain calpains I and II cathepsins , H, and L proline endopeptidase and interleukin-converting enzyme (ICE) and its homologs. The most well-studied cysteinyl protease is likely papain, and the first x-ray crystallographic structures of papain [193] and a peptide chloromethylketone inhibitor-papain complex [194] provided the first high resolution molecular maps of the active site. Pioneering studies in the discovery of papain substrate peptide-based inhibitors having P, electrophilic moieties such as aldehydes [195], ketones (e.g., fluoromethylketone, which has been determined [196] to exhibit selectivity for cysteinyl proteases versus serinyl proteases), semicarbazones, and nitriles are noteworthy since 13C-NMR spectro-... 

Figure 4. Schematic of the active site of papain with peptide and amino acid ester in place (S)...

In the course of investigations using 4-chloro-7-nitrobenzofurazan as a reactivity probe for identifying the active sites of a number of enzymes such as papain, ficin, and bromelain, the intermediacy of Meisenheimer adducts derived from direct attack of thiolate groups located in the protein has been assumed on the basis of the spectral changes accompanying the process of replacement of the chloro group.232,233... 

Figure 12-15 Schematic drawing of the active site of a cysteine protease of the papain family with a partial structure of an acyl-enzyme intermediate in green. The thiolate-imidazolium pair of Cys 25 His 159 lies deep in the substrate-binding cleft and bridges an interface between two major structural domains, just as the Ser His pair does in serine proteases (Fig. 12-10). This may facilitate small conformational changes during the catalytic cycle. Asn 175 provides a polarizable acceptor for positive charge, helping to stabilize the preformed ion pair, and allows easy transfer of an imidazolium proton to the product of substrate cleavage. The peptide NH of Cys 25 and the side chain of Gin 19 form an oxyanion hole.

Most of the lysosomal proteases called cathepsins are small 20- to 40-kDa glycoproteins found in all animal tissues.313 Most are cysteine proteases which function best and are most stable in the low pH reducing environment of lysosomes. They resemble papain in size, amino acid sequence, and active site structures. Papain is nonspecific but most cathepsins have definite substrate preferences. Cathepsin B is the most abundant. There are smaller amounts of related cathepsins H (an aminopeptidase)314 and L315 and still less of cathepsins C, K, and others. Cathepsin B is both an endopep-tidase and an exopeptidase.316 It acts on peptides with arginine at either Pj or P2 but also accepts bulky hydro-phobic residues in Pj and prefers tyrosine at P3.317 Cathepsin S is less stable at higher pH than other cathepsins and has a more limited tissue distribution, being especially active in the immune system.318 319... 

Papain is a protein-hydrolyzing (proteolytic) enzyme with an -SH group and an imidazole group at the active site. Write a reasonable structure for a "tetrahedral intermediate" that would be expected to arise during formation of an acyl enzyme intermediate. 

Exercise 25-30 The proteolytic enzyme, papain, differs from chymotrypsin in having cysteine, or a labile derivative thereof, as part of its active site. The enzyme is deactivated by substances that form complexes with, or react with, —SH groups and the activity is restored by reactions expected to regenerate an —SH group. Work out a schematic mechanism for cleavage of a peptide chain with papain that involves acylation of the critical —SH group of papain. 

Peptide nitriles are reversible inhibitors of cysteine proteases. 1,2 Peptide nitrile reacts with the active site thiol group to form an imidothioate, a dead-end product that does not undergo hydrolysis to an amide.134 This imidothioate derivative has been detected by NMR spectroscopic studies.P 5 The inhibition of papain, a cysteine protease, by a peptide nitrile proved to be reversible in a dialysis experiment. 3 Peptide nitriles are weaker inhibitors of cysteine proteases than the corresponding aldehydes. 61 Most peptide nitriles show poor inhibition toward serine proteases, however those nitriles with proper peptide sequences are potent inhibitors of serine proteases. 7-9 ... 

Probably the aspect of primary importance for the catalytic activity of cysteine proteases is the high nucleophilicity of the active-site thiol group. It is now generally accepted that the active form of papain and of cysteine proteases in general consists of a thiolate-imidazolium ion-pair, built from Cys25 and Hisl59. 

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