Protease amino acid synthesis

Fine chemicals Aspartame synthesis Amino acid synthesis Antibiotics Protease (e.g. thermolysin) Aminoacylase Penicillin acylase... 

Within infected erythrocytes, Plasmodium falciparum (strain responsible for most fatal cases) digest fee host hemoglobin wife the aid of several specific parasite proteases 4, 5). Hemoglobin comprises 93% of fee cytosolic protein of red blood cells smd up to 80% of the 3 mM hemoglobin is degraded by fee parasite (6). This intensive proteolysis releases free heme and amino-acids. These amino-acids are incorporated into parasitic proteins and feis supply is essential for fee survival of Plasmodium, a "true parasite", which has a limited capacity for fee de novo amino-acid synthesis. Only a very limited amoimt of the free heme is metabolized by fee parasite as iron source. 

In normal cells, the GDP/GTP-binding proteins, after protein synthesis, move to the cell membrane to which they become hooked by a hydrophobic farnesyl group. The y-subunit is anchored in the membrane by a post-translational modification of the C-terminal CAAX sequence (C - cystein, AA - aliphatic amino acids, X - methionine). This protein is first enzymatically farnesylated by a specific farnesyltransferase, then the AAX part is cleaved by specific proteases and finally the cystein residue is converted to a methyl ester. 

A practical enzymatic procedure using alcalase as biocatalyst has been developed for the synthesis of hydrophilic peptides.Alcalase is an industrial alkaline protease from Bacillus licheniformis produced by Novozymes that has been used as a detergent and for silk degumming. The major enzyme component of alcalase is the serine protease subtilisin Carlsberg, which is one of the fully characterized bacterial proteases. Alcalase has better stability and activity in polar organic solvents, such as alcohols, acetonitrile, dimethylformamide, etc., than other proteases. In addition, alcalase has wide specificity and both l- and o-amino acids that are accepted as nucleophiles at the p-1 subsite. Therefore, alcalase is a suitable biocatalyst to catalyse peptide bond formation in organic solvents under kinetic control without any racemization of the amino acids (Scheme 5.1). 

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). 

Use of Proteases in Peptide Synthesis. Typically peptides are synthesized the standard solid or liquid phase methodologies (56, 57). However, both of these techniques require harsh chemical reactions which are detrimental to certain amino acids. Furthermore, in practical terms most peptide syntheses are limited to the range of 30 to 50 amino acid residues. Hence, peptide synthesis is still somewhat problematic in many cases. In certain situations, the alternative method of peptide synthesis using proteases is an attractive choice. With this form of synthesis, one can avoid the use of the noxious and hazardous chemicals used in solid or liquid phase peptide synthesis. Since the reactions are enzyme catalyzed, racemization of the peptide bond does not occur. This technique has been used with success in the synthesis and semisynthesis of several important peptides including human insulin (55,59). 

Histamine is synthesized from the amino acid histidine by an action of the enzyme histidine decarboxylase (Fig. 38.1). Following synthesis, histamine is either rapidly inactivated or stored in the secretory granules of mast cells and basophils as an inactive complex with proteases and heparin sulfate or chondroitin sulfate. 

An alternative to the synthesis of proteins by classical fragment synthesis in solution or by solid-phase synthesis on a support is the use of enzyme-catalyzed condensation of amino acids or peptides. This possibility was first demonstrated in 1938 91 with the synthesis of poorly soluble benzoyl-leucyl-leucine anilide by papain catalysis. After many years, this approach was extended to the preparation of peptide hormones such as Leu-enkephalin 92 and dynorphin(l -8).[93 This was made possible by the use of highly purified enzymes and by careful control of reaction conditions. The basic principles of protease-catalyzed peptide bond formation have been discussed.194 ... 

Formation of an amide bond (peptide bond) will take place if an amine and not an alcohol attacks the acyl enzyme. If an amino acid (acid protected) is used, reactions can be continued to form oligo peptides. If an ester is used the process will be a kinetically controlled aminolysis. If an amino acid (amino protected) is used it will be reversed hydrolysis and if it is a protected amide or peptide it will be transpeptidation. Both of the latter methods are thermodynamically controlled. However, synthesis of peptides using biocatalytic methods (esterase, lipase or protease) is only of limited importance for two reasons. Synthesis by either of the above mentioned biocatalytic methods will take place in low water media and low solubility of peptides with more than 2-3 amino acids limits their value. Secondly, there are well developed non-biocatalytic methods for peptide synthesis. For small quantities the automated Merrifield method works well. 

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