Papaine aminopeptidase

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... 

One of the most interesting features of papain is that more than 100 of its total of 185 amino-acid residues may be removed with the aid of an aminopeptidase to give a fragment with considerable enzymatic activity.)... 

Cysteine proteases are so called because of a critical cysteine involved (together with an adjacent histidine) in the catalytic mechanism. Cysteine proteases include papain-related proteases, calpain-related proteases and the caspases. Papain-like cysteine proteases include the plant enzymes actinidin, aleurain, bromelain, caricain, chymopapain, ficin and papain and the lysosomal cathepsins B, C, H, K, L and S. Cathepsin C is multimeric (MW -200,000), but the other papain-related proteases are monomeric with MWs of about 20,000-35,000. While cathepsin C is a dipeptidyl aminopeptidase, the other enzymes are endopeptidases. Cathepsin B is an endopeptidase and a dipeptidyl carboxypeptidase. Cathepsin H is an endopeptidase and an aminopeptidase. In higher animals, cathepsin B generates peptides from antigens for presentation to T cells by the major histocompatibility... 

Azaserine labeled enzyme Papain, pronase, aminopeptidase C -labeled azaserinepeptide Dawid ei al. (1963)... 

Procedure 3 papain, leucine aminopeptidase, prolidase This early procedure for enzymic hydrolysis of proteins was reported by Hill and Schmidt (1962) to be successful for hydrolysis of several proteins. Papain was found to be superior to subtilisin or a combination of trypsin and chymotrypsin for the initial hydrolysis. The method might be improved if aminopeptidase M (discovered after the method was developed) is used in place of the leucine aminopeptidase, but to our knowledge this has not been tested. The problem with diketo-piperazine formation from X-Pro dipeptides in aminopeptidase M hydrolysates of peptides (see above) may make this substitution less desirable than it would seem at first. 

Enzymes that hydrolyze amide and ester bonds may be divided into three classes (1) those requiring a thiol group for activity, such as papain, ficin, and other plant enzymes (2) those inhibited by diisopropylphosphorofluo-ridate (DFP), such as a-chymotrypin, trypsin, subtilisin, cholinesterase, and thrombin (3) those that require a metal ion for activity. This last class includes dipeptidases, and exopeptidases such as carboxypeptidase and leucine aminopeptidase. The metal ion is involved in the stabilization of the tetrahedral intermediate (refer to Section 4.4.1). 

Many proteolytic enzymes (trypsin, chymotrypsin, pepsin, papain and leucine aminopeptidase) destroy angiotensin in vitro. 

Enzymatic hydrolysis of proteins is an attractive alternative to the hydrolytic procedures and has been used to avoid destruction of tryptophan (174). A mixture of proteolytic enzymes, such as chymo-trypsin, thermolysin, papain, leucine aminopeptidase and pronase has been used (135, 192, 353). Upon completion of the enzymatic hydrolysis of the protein, the hydrolyzate is rendered free of proteolytic enzymes by precipitation and centrifugation and the extract directly analyzed with the amino acid analyzer. The method however may not be generally valid, because of the possibility of artefacts due to self-digestion of the enzymes used. 

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