Pepsin specificities

The specificity of porcine pepsin toward small synthetic substrates has been extensively investigated (1-4), but only a few papers have dealt with the specificity of this enzyme toward polypeptide or protein substrates. Tang analyzed cleavage sites of 4 proteins by pepsin and concluded that the enzyme possessed a hydro-phobic binding site (5). In addition, bonds split by pepsin in seven peptides or proteins of established sequence have been summarized by Hill (6). In neither study was the sample size large enough to yield any information other than the primary specificity of pepsin. Antonov and his coworkers (7) recently reported a more extensive analysis of pepsin specificity toward protein substrates and concluded that the enzyme possessed five subsites. 

In some parts of the world, pepsin is also used to clot milk, but it is much less specific and can give rise to a number of degradation products that tend to taste bitter. 

Mammals, fungi, and higher plants produce a family of proteolytic enzymes known as aspartic proteases. These enzymes are active at acidic (or sometimes neutral) pH, and each possesses two aspartic acid residues at the active site. Aspartic proteases carry out a variety of functions (Table 16.3), including digestion pepsin and ehymosin), lysosomal protein degradation eathepsin D and E), and regulation of blood pressure renin is an aspartic protease involved in the production of an otensin, a hormone that stimulates smooth muscle contraction and reduces excretion of salts and fluid). The aspartic proteases display a variety of substrate specificities, but normally they are most active in the cleavage of peptide bonds between two hydrophobic amino acid residues. The preferred substrates of pepsin, for example, contain aromatic residues on both sides of the peptide bond to be cleaved. 

Chemistry of Tissues. 2. Polysaccharides Showing Blood Group A Specificity and the Nature of the Constituent Units of the Stable Carbohydrate Residue of the A Substance from Pepsin, H. G. Bray, H. H. Henry, and M. Stacey, Biochem. J., 40 (1946) 124-130. 

There are two main classes of proteolytic digestive enzymes (proteases), with different specificities for the amino acids forming the peptide bond to be hydrolyzed. Endopeptidases hydrolyze peptide bonds between specific amino acids throughout the molecule. They are the first enzymes to act, yielding a larger number of smaller fragments, eg, pepsin in the gastric juice and trypsin, chymotrypsin, and elastase secreted into the small intestine by the pancreas. Exopeptidases catalyze the hydrolysis of peptide bonds, one at a time, fi"om the ends of polypeptides. Carboxypeptidases, secreted in the pancreatic juice, release amino acids from rhe free carboxyl terminal, and aminopeptidases, secreted by the intestinal mucosal cells, release amino acids from the amino terminal. Dipeptides, which are not substrates for exopeptidases, are hydrolyzed in the brush border of intestinal mucosal cells by dipeptidases. 

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. 

There are two catalytically active residues in pepsin Asp-32 and Asp-215. Their ionizations are seen in the pH-activity profile, which has an optimum at pH 2 to 3, and which depends upon the acidic form of a group of pKa 4.5 and the basic form of a group of pKa 1.1.160,161 The pKa values have been assigned from the reactions of irreversible inhibitors that are designed to react specifically with ionized or un-ionized carboxyl groups. Diazo compounds—such as A-diazoacetyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester, which reacts with un-ionized carboxyls—react specifically with Asp-215 up to pH 5 or so (equation 16.28).162-164 Epoxides, which react specifically with ionized carboxyls, modify Asp-32 (equation 16.29). 

Mucus is produced by the mucus neck cells and by the surface epithelial cells of the stomach wall. A thick layer of mucus adheres to the wall of the stomach, forming the gastric mucosal barrier. The function of this barrier is to protect the gastric mucosa from injury — specifically, from the corrosive actions of HCl and pepsin. Together with bicarbonate ion released into the lumen of the stomach, mucus neutralizes the acid and maintains the mucosal surface at a nearly neutral pH. 

Solids were characterized by XRD, N2.BET surface area, and FT-IR. The antacid capacity of the synthesized zeolites was evaluated using the methodology reported by Rivera et al. [7] and Linares et al. [6]. The pepsin enzymatic activity was determined by the reaction between a specific mass of the solid and a denatured haemoglobin solution [8]. 

Soya Proteins. Early attempts to make albumen substitutes from soya protein also ran into problems. A bean flavour tended to appear in the finished product. A solution to these problems has been found. Whipping agents based on enzyme modified soy proteins are now available. The advantage of enzymatic modification is that by appropriate choice of enzymes the protein can be modified in a very controlled way. Chemical treatment would be far less specific. In making these materials the manufacturer has control of the substrate and the enzyme, allowing the final product to be almost made to order. The substrates used are oil-free soy flakes or flour or soy protein concentrate or isolate. The enzymes to use are chosen from a combination of pepsin, papain, ficin, trypsin or bacterial proteases. The substrate will be treated with one or more enzymes under carefully controlled conditions. The finished product is then spray dried. 

Recently, Noort et al developed a procedure that is based on straightforward isolation of adducted BuChE from plasma by means of affinity chromatography with a procainamide column, followed by pepsin digestion and LC/electrospray tandem MS analysis of a specific nonapeptide containing the phosphonylated active site serine-198 residue (5). This method surpasses the limitations of the fluoride-reactivation method, since it can also deal with dealkylated ( aged ) phosphonylated BuChE. The method allowed the positive analysis of several serum samples of Japanese victims of the terrorist attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995. Furthermore, the method could be applied for detection of ChE modifications induced by, e.g., diethyl paraoxon and pyridostigmine bromide, illustrating the broad scope of this approach. This new approach... 

Tian SF, Toda S, Higashimo H and Matsumara S (1996) Glycation decreases the stability of the triple-helical strands of fibrous collagen against proteolytic degradation by pepsin in a specific temperature range. J Biochem 120, 1153-1162. 

To localize the rate of deuterium buildup to specific amides, the analyte protein is fragmented into a collection of peptides using combinations of endo- and exoproteases. Due to the low pH of the quench conditions in which the protein and peptide samples are maintained after deuterium labeling, acid-reactive proteases such as pepsin must be employed. Studies with combinations of acid-reactive en-doproteinases and carboxypeptidases have been employed to achieve greater sequence coverage and higher amide resolution [42, 45]. 

The Daily Industiy. The first step in cheese manufacture is the coagulation of milk. Coagulation can be divided into two distinct phases, enzymatic and the non-enzymatic. In the primary enzymatic phase a proteol ic enzyme such as chymosin (rennet), or less effectively, pepsin, carries out an extremely specific and limited proteolysis, cleaving a phenylalanine-methionine bond of /c-casein, making the casein micelle metastabie. In the second, non-enzymatic phase, the... 

This lysosomal endopeptidase [EC 3.4.23.5] is similar to pepsin A, except that the specificity is narrower and will not hydrolyze the Gln" —His peptide bond in the B chain of insulin. The enzyme is a member of the peptidase family Al. 

This aspartic proteinase [EC 3.4.23.22], from the ascomy-cete Endothia parasitica, catalyzes the hydrolysis of proteins with broad specificity similar to that of pepsin A, with preferential action on substrates containing hydrophobic residues at PI and PI. ... 

Arentz-Hansen et al. (2004) ( continuation of Lundin et al, 2003) 9 CD subjects who had history of oats exposure ( 5/9 from same study population) Derivation of polyclonal T cell lines In vitro duodenal mucosal cultures were challenged with either pepsin or Avenin-reactive T cell lines recognized avenin peptides in the context of HLA-DQ2 A substantial proportion of the avenin-reactive T cell appears to be specific to avenin Some CD patients have avenin-reactive mucosal T cells that can cause mucosal inflammation... 

---