Aspartic peptidases

Typical examples of enzymes involved in food applications are cholinesterase for organophosphorous and carbamate pesticide analysis tyrosinase or laccase for analysis of phenols, quinones, and related compounds glucose oxidase for sugar content analysis, carboxyl esterase, alcohol oxidase, carboxypeptidase, L-aspartase, peptidase, aspartate... 

Peptidase Aspartate deaminase L-glutamate oxidase Amperometry 0-1 mmol L 20 pmol L 8 [55]... 

Serine peptidase Metaiio peptidase Cysteine peptidase Aspartic peptidase Giutamic peptidase Threonine peptidase Asparagine peptidase... 

Aspartic peptidases bind and activate water via two aspartic acid residues. 

Peptidases have been classified by the MEROPS system since 1993 [2], which has been available viatheMEROPS database since 1996 [3]. The classification is based on sequence and structural similarities. Because peptidases are often multidomain proteins, only the domain directly involved in catalysis, and which beais the active site residues, is used in comparisons. This domain is known as the peptidase unit. Peptidases with statistically significant peptidase unit sequence similarities are included in the same family. To date 186 families of peptidase have been detected. Examples from 86 of these families are known in humans. A family is named from a letter representing the catalytic type ( A for aspartic, G for glutamic, M for metallo, C for cysteine, S for serine and T for threonine) plus a number. Examples of family names are shown in Table 1. There are 53 families of metallopeptidases (24 in human), 14 of aspartic peptidases (three of which are found in human), 62 of cysteine peptidases (19 in human), 42 of serine peptidases (17 in human), four of threonine peptidases (three in human), one of ghitamicpeptidases and nine families for which the catalytic type is unknown (one in human). It should be noted that within a family not all of the members will be peptidases. Usually non-peptidase homologues are a minority and can be easily detected because not all of the active site residues are conserved. 

It is recommended that a well-characterized peptidase should have a trivial name. Although not rigidly adhered to, there is a different suffix for each catalytic type, metallopeptidases names end with lysin , aspartic peptidases with pepsin , cysteine pqrtidase with ain and serine peptidases with in . 

Inhibitors which interact only with peptidases of one catalytic type include pepstatin (aspartic peptidases) E64 (cysteine peptidases from clan CA) diisopropyl fluorophosphates (DFP) and phenylmethane sulfonyl-fluoride (PMSF) (serine peptidases). Bestatin is a useful inhibitor of aminopeptidases. 

Neotame is an artificial sweetener designed to overcome some of the problems with aspartame. The dimethylbutyl part of the molecule was added to block the action of peptidases, enzymes that break the peptide bond between the two amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine. This reduces the availability of phenylalanine, eliminating the need for a warning on labels directed at people who cannot properly metabolize phenylalanine. 

Volume 248. Proteolytic Enzymes Aspartic and Metallo Peptidases Edited by Alan J. Barrett... 

The NC-IUBMB has introduced a number of changes in the terminology following the proposals made by Barrett, Rawlings and co-workers [7] [8]. The term peptidase should now be used as a synonym for peptide hydrolase and includes all enzymes that hydrolyze peptide bonds. Previously the term peptidases was restricted to exopeptidases . The terms peptidase and protease are now synonymous. For consistency with this nomenclature, the term proteinases has been replaced by endopeptidases . To complete this note on terminology, we remind the reader that the terms cysteine endopeptidases and aspartic endopeptidases were previously called thiol proteinases and acid or carboxyl proteinases , respectively [9],... 

The peptidases were separated into catalytic types according to the chemical nature of the group responsible for catalysis. The major catalytic types are, thus, Serine (and the related Threonine), Cysteine, Aspartic, Metallo, and As-Yet-Unclassified. An in-depth presentation of catalytic sites and mechanisms, based on this classification, is the subject of Chapt. 3. 

The previous chapter offered a broad overview of peptidases and esterases in terms of their classification, localization, and some physiological roles. Mention was made of the classification of hydrolases based on a characteristic functionality in their catalytic site, namely serine hydrolases, cysteine hydrolases, aspartic hydrolases, and metallopeptidases. What was left for the present chapter, however, is a detailed presentation of their catalytic site and mechanisms. As such, this chapter serves as a logical link between the preceding overview and the following chapters, whose focus is on metabolic reactions. 

The mechanism by which serine peptidases, particularly serine endopep-tidases (EC 3.4.21), hydrolyze peptide bonds in peptides and proteins has been extensively investigated by X-ray crystallography, site-directed mutagenesis, detection of intermediates, chemical modification, H-NMR spectroscopy, and neutron diffraction [2-14], These studies revealed that all serine peptidases possess a catalytic triad, composed of a serine, a histidine, and an aspartate residue, and a so-called oxyanion hole formed by backbone NH groups. 

Other serine hydrolases such as cholinesterases, carboxylesterases, lipases, and fl-lactamases of classes A, C, and D have a hydrolytic mechanism similar to that of serine peptidases [25-27], The catalytic mechanism also involves an acylation and a deacylation step at a serine residue in the active center (see Fig. 3.3). All serine hydrolases have in common that they are inhibited by covalent attachment of diisopropyl phosphorofluoridate (3.2) to the catalytic serine residue. The catalytic site of esterases and lipases has been less extensively investigated than that of serine peptidases, but much evidence has accumulated that they also contain a catalytic triad composed of serine, histidine, and aspartate or glutamate (Table 3.1). 

Enzymes of the pepsin family rarely catalyze the hydrolysis of esters, with the exceptions of, for example, esters of L-/3-penicillactic acid and some sulfinic acid esters. Under suitable conditions, i. e., low pH, high enzyme concentration, and formation of an insoluble peptide, aspartic peptidases are able to catalyze the synthesis of peptides [71] [72],... 

Like aspartic peptidases, metallopeptidases act by activating a H20 molecule, and they do not form a covalent intermediate with the substrate. Here, the activation of a H20 molecule is mediated by a residue that acts as general base (e.g., Glu, His, Lys, Arg, or Tyr), with a divalent cation (usually Zn2+ but sometimes Co2+ or Mn2+) perhaps also contributing. The major role of the metal cation, however, is to act as an electrophilic catalyst by coordinating the carbonyl (or phosphoryl) O-atom in the substrate and orienting the latter for nucleophilic attack by the HO ion generated from H20 by the general base. 

Dash C, Kulkarni A, Dunn B, Rao M. 2003. Aspartic peptidase inhibitors implications in drug development. Grit Rev Biochem Mol Biol 38 89-119. 

Novel PS-related famihes of proteins (IMPAS/PSH/signal peptide peptidases [SPSs]) have been identified (163). Intramembrane protease-associated or intramembrane protease aspartic protein Impas 1 (1MP1)/SPS induces intramembranous cleavage of PSl holoprotein in cultured cells coexpressing these proteins. Mutations in evolutionary invariant sites in hlMPl or specific y-secretase inhibitors abolish the hlMPl-mediated endoproteolysis of PSl. In contrast, AD-like mutations in neither hlMPl nor PSl substrate abridge the PSl cleavage (163). 

Weihofen, A., Lemberg, M.K., Friedmann, E., et al. (2003) Targeting presenilin-type aspartic protease signal peptide peptidase with y-secretase inhibitors. J. Biol. Chem., 278, 16528-16533. 

The long tail of myosin contains a high proportion of the amino acids leucine, isoleucine, aspartate and glutamate. These are released upon the degradation of myosin by intracellular proteases and peptidases and they provide nitrogen for the synthesis of glutamine. It is then stored in muscle and is a very important fuel for immune cells (Chapter 17). 

This zinc-dependent enzyme [EC 3.4.17.1], a member of the peptidase family M14, catalyzes the hydrolysis of peptide bonds at the C-terminus of polypeptides. Little hydrolytic action occurs if the C-terminal amino acid is aspartate, glutamate, arginine, lysine, or proline. Car-boxypeptidase A is formed from a precursor protein, procarboxypeptidase A. 

This method is compatible with many functional groups and shows considerable selectivity. Phosphonic acid esters may be cleaved in the presence of carboxylic acid esters, and phosphonate methyl esters are cleaved approximately 25 times faster than the isopropyl esters. For example, the phosphonate methyl ester of the hexapeptide analogue 78 was cleaved with TMSBr to give the aspartic peptidase inhibitor 79 in 64% yield (Scheme 28). 66 ... 

This text is a good source of information on the chemical mechanisms underlying the different modes of peptidase catalysis. Three important enzymes are covered subtilisin, a serine endopepti-dase papain, a cysteine endopeptidase and chymosin, an aspartic endopeptidase. 

Aspartic peptidases, 365 Atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), used with LC/MS ATR-FTIR. see Attenuated total reflection Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), trans fatty acids, 505-511 Autoxidation. see also Oxidation discussed, 535 of lipids, 558, 627 prevention of, 558... 

Takahashi, K. (1995). Proteinase A from Aspergillus niger. In Barrett, A. J. (Ed). Methods in ENZYMOLOGT, Vol. 248. Proteolytic Enzymes Aspartic and Metallo Peptidases, (pp. 146-155.). New York Academic Press. 

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