Thrombin acids

Fig. 10.12 Sequence alignment of trypsin, chymotrypsin and thrombin (bovine). The active sites histidine, aspartic acid and serine are highlighted.

Factor V. High in sialic acid content. Factor V is a large asymmetric single-chain glycoprotein that becomes an active participant in the coagulation cascade when it is converted to its active form by a-thrombin. Approximately 25% of human Factor V is found in the whole blood associated with platelets. Factor V is an essential cofactor along with Factor Xa plus phosphohpid plus Ca " in the conversion of prothrombin to thrombin. 

Himdin [8001-27-2] is a polypeptide of 66 amino acids found ia the saUvary gland secretions of the leech Himdo medicinalis (45). It is a potent inhibitor of thrombin and biads to y-thrombia with a dissociation constant of 0.8 x 10 ° M to 2.0 x lO " M. Himdin forms a stable noncovalent complex with free and bound thrombin completely iadependent of AT-III. This material has now been cloned and expressed ia yeast cells (46,47). Its antigenic poteatial ia humans remains to be estabUshed. 

Argatroban [74863-84-6] ((2R,4R)-4-methyl-l-[A/ -)(3 methyl l,2,3,4-tetrahydto-8-quiaoIiaesulfonyl)-L-atgiayl]-2-piperidiaecatboxyhc acid monohydrate) is a potent inhibitor of thrombin formation and activity (49). This agent has been studied in vitro and ia a few animal models. Its toxicity and activity ia humans ate unknown. 

Heparin inhibits the formation of fibrin clots, inhibits the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin, and inactivates several of the factors necessary for the clotting of blood. Heparin cannot be taken orally because it is inactivated by gastric acid in the stomach therefore, it must be given by injection. Heparin has no effect on clots that have already formed and aids only in preventing the formation of new blood clots (thrombi). The LMWHs act to inhibit clotting reactions by binding to antithrombin HI, which inhibits the synthesis of factor Xa and the formation of thrombin. 

The serine proteases are the most extensively studied class of enzymes. These enzymes are characterized by the presence of a unique serine amino acid. Two major evolutionary families are presented in this class. The bacterial protease subtilisin and the trypsin family, which includes the enzymes trypsin, chymotrypsin, elastase as well as thrombin, plasmin, and others involved in a diverse range of cellular functions including digestion, blood clotting, hormone production, and complement activation. The trypsin family catalyzes the reaction ... 

Amino acid receptors Monoamine receptors Lipid receptors Purine receptors Neuropeptide receptors Peptide hormone receptors Chemokine receptors Glycoprotein receptors Protease receptors Metabotropic glutamate and GABAb receptors Adrenoceptors, dopamine and 5-HT receptors, muscarinic and histamine receptors Prostaglandin, thromboxane and PAF receptors Adenosine and ATP (P2Y) receptors Neuropeptide Y, opiate, cholecystokinin VIP, etc. Angiotensin, bradykinin, glucagon, calcitonin, parathyroid, etc. Interleukin-8 TSH, LH/FSH, chorionic gonadotropin, etc. Thrombin... 

Irreversible inhibition is probably due to the alkylation of a histidine residue.43 Chymotrypsin is selectively inactivated with no or poor inhibition of human leukocyte elastase (HLE) with a major difference the inactivation of HLE is transient.42,43 The calculated intrinsic reactivity of the coumarin derivatives, using a model of a nucleophilic reaction between the ligand and the methanol-water pair, indicates that the inhibitor potency cannot be explained solely by differences in the reactivity of the lactonic carbonyl group toward the nucleophilic attack 43 Studies on pyridyl esters of 6-(chloromethyl)-2-oxo-2//-1 -benzopyran-3-carboxylic acid (5 and 6, Fig. 11.5) and related structures having various substituents at the 6-position (7, Fig. 11.5) revealed that compounds 5 and 6 are powerful inhibitors of human leukocyte elastase and a-chymotrypsin thrombin is inhibited in some cases whereas trypsin is not inhibited.21... 

Fig. 11. —Proposed Model for aTemary Complex between Heparin (HEP), Antithrombin (AT), and Thrombin (T), Involving an Octadecasaccharide Sequence of the Heparin Chain.419 [Within the large brace, full circles denote uronic acid residues, the small brace encompassing the minimal binding-site for AT. The thrombin-binding region is presumed to be situated towards the nonreducing end of the AT-binding sequence,933 which is arbitrarily assumed to be in the middle of the heparin chain.]...

The most potent thrombin inhibitor is hirudin, originally isolated from the salivary glands of the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis. Its inhibition constant is in the femtomolar (10-15 M) range (57). It is a 65-amino-acid tyrosine-sulfated single-chain polypeptide. Recombinant hirudin differs from native hirudin by the absence of the sulfate group on tyrosine 63 (Tyr-63) and is referred to as desulfato hirudin. The loss of this sulfate group reduces the thrombin inhibitory potency by 10-fold. 

Bivalent inhibitors of thrombin have been synthesized to bind the anion-binding exosite and active (catalytic) site of thrombin simultaneously. By coupling the carboxy terminal fragment of hirudin to a tripeptide (D-Phe-Pro-Arg) by including a spacer molecule, both the anion exosite and the catalytic site are blocked. An example of such a molecule is Hirulog, which has 20 amino acids and has a Kj of 2 nM (61). Its ability to block the active site has been questioned, since thrombin has been shown to cleave the Arg-Pro bond of Hirulog slowly in vivo (58). In addition to hirudin and hirudin-like compounds, three other classes of site-directed thrombin inhibitors deserve mention. 

Synthetic heterocyclic and modified amino acid derivatives have been grouped in a class of thrombin inhibitors called peptidomimetics. An example of such a compound is argatroban, with a molecular mass of 532 Da. It blocks thrombin s active catalytic site by binding to the adjacent apolar binding site. This selective reversible inhibitor of thrombin has a K of 19 nM and blocks thrombin s role in coagulation and fibrinolysis (62). 

A group of peptide derivatives such as peptide arginals and boronic acid peptide derivatives belong to another class of reversible thrombin inhibitors. One such inhibitor is PPACK (D-Phe-Pro-Arg chloromethyl ketone), which functions as a powerful irreversible thrombin inhibitor by alkylating the histidine residue at the catalytic site of thrombin (58). It, however, is unstable in neutral solution, as it undergoes cyclization and inactivation. However, the D-methyl derivative of D-Phe-Pro-Arg-H (D-Mephe-Pro-Arg-H) called efegatran, with a molecular mass of 515 Da, is a stable selective reversible inhibitor of thrombin with a K. of approximately 100 nM. The basic amino terminus in this compound is responsible for promoting the specificity toward thrombin (63). 

Kubik M. F Stephens A. W., Schneider D et al. High-affinity RNA ligands to human a thrombin. Nucleic Acids Res 1994 22,2619-26. 

Pmrl Proteinase K Prothrombin fatty acids (378,379) Yeast Golgi Ca2+/Mn2+-ATPase ion pump (380,381) Peptide fragmentation enzyme (382) Thrombin precursor extracellular trigger involved in blood clotting... 

Prothrombin (factor II) is a 582 amino acid, 72.5 kDa glycoprotein, which represents the circulating zymogen of thrombin (Ha). It contains up to six y-carboxyglutamate residues towards its N-terminal end, via which it binds several Ca2+ ions. Binding of Ca2+ facilitates prothrombin binding to factor Xa at the site of vascular injury. The factor Xa complex then proteolytically... 

Figure 12.5 Proteolytic cleavage of prothrombin by factor Xa, yielding active thrombin. Although prothrombin is a single-chain glycoprotein, thrombin consists of two polypeptides linked by what was originally the prothrombin intrachain disulfide bond. The smaller thrombin polypeptide fragment consists of 49 amino acid residues, and the large polypeptide chain contains 259 amino acids. The N-terminal fragment released from prothrombin contains 274 amino acid residues. Activation of prothrombin by Xa does not occur in free solution, but at the site of vascular damage...

Antithrombin, already mentioned in the context of heparin, is the most abundantly occurring natural inhibitor of coagulation. It is a single-chain 432 amino acid glycoprotein displaying four oligosaccharide side chains and an approximate molecular mass of 58 kDa. It is present in plasma at concentrations of 150 pig ml 1 and is a potent inhibitor of thrombin (factor Ha), as well as of factors IXa and Xa. It inhibits thrombin by binding directly to it in a 1 1 stoichiometric complex. 

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