Trypsin structure

Kastenholz et al. published the first application of the CPCA method. It dealt with the three serine proteases thrombin, factor Xa, and trypsin [8]. The score plot of the analysis which employed a total of 13 X-ray structures is shown in Fig. 3.5. PC 1 distinguishes between the thrombin and trypsin structures, while PC 2 separates factor Xa from the remaining two enzymes. The usual ligand binding region, which is very similar in all three enzymes, can be subdivided into three subpockets SI, P and D [36] (see Fig. 3.8). With the cut-out tool, each of the three sub-pockets was investigated separately. 

M. H. Hao, M. R. Pincus, S. Rackovsky, and H. A. Scheraga. Unfolding and refolding of the native structure of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor studied by computer simulations. Biochemistry, 32 9614-9631, 1993. 

Application of the CCM to small sets (n < 6) of enzyme inhibitors revealed correlations between the inhibitory activity and the chirality measure of the inhibitors, calculated by Eq. (26) for the entire structure or for the substructure that interacts with the enzyme (pharmacophore) [41], This was done for arylammonium inhibitors of trypsin, Di-dopamine receptor inhibitors, and organophosphate inhibitors of trypsin, acetylcholine esterase, and butyrylcholine esterase. Because the CCM values are equal for opposite enantiomers, the method had to be applied separately to the two families of enantiomers (R- and S-enantiomers). 

D, J Sturzebecher and WBode 1991. Geometry of Binding of the N-Alpha-Tosylated Piperidides of weffl-Amidino-Phenylalanine, Para Amidino-Phenylalanine and para-Guanidino-Phenylalanine to Thrombin and Trypsin - X-ray Crystal Structures of Their Trypsin Complexes and Modeling of their Thrombin Complexes. FEBS Letters 287 133-138. 

Figure 2.14 shows examples of both cases, an isolated ribbon and a p sheet. The isolated ribbon is illustrated by the structure of bovine trypsin inhibitor (Figure 2.14a), a small, very stable polypeptide of 58 amino acids that inhibits the activity of the digestive protease trypsin. The structure has been determined to 1.0 A resolution in the laboratory of Robert Huber in Munich, Germany, and the folding pathway of this protein is discussed in Chapter 6. Hairpin motifs as parts of a p sheet are exemplified by the structure of a snake venom, erabutoxin (Figure 2.14b), which binds to and inhibits... 

Wlodawer, A., Deisenhofer, J., Huber, R. Comparison of two highly refined structures of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor. /. Mol. Biol. 193 145-156, 1987. 

This is nicely illustrated by members of the chymotrypsin superfamily the enzymes chymotrypsin, trypsin, and elastase have very similar three-dimensional structures but different specificity. They preferentially cleave adjacent to bulky aromatic side chains, positively charged side chains, and small uncharged side chains, respectively. Three residues, numbers 189, 216, and 226, are responsible for these preferences (Figure 11.11). Residues 216... 

The results of experiments in which the mutation was made were, however, a complete surprise. The Asp 189-Lys mutant was totally inactive with both Asp and Glu substrates. It was, as expected, also inactive toward Lys and Arg substrates. The mutant was, however, catalytically active with Phe and Tyr substrates, with the same low turnover number as wild-type trypsin. On the other hand, it showed a more than 5000-fold increase in kcat/f m with Leu substrates over wild type. The three-dimensional structure of this interesting mutant has not yet been determined, but the structure of a related mutant Asp 189-His shows the histidine side chain in an unexpected position, buried inside the protein. 

Fehlhammer, H., Bode, W., Huber, R. Crystal structure of bovine trypsinogen at 1.8 A resolution. 11. Crystallographic refinement, refined crystal structure and comparison with bovine trypsin. J. Mol. Biol. 

Krieger, M., Kay, L.M., Stroud, R.M. Structure and specific binding of trypsin comparison of inhibited derivatives and a model for substrate binding. /. Mol. Biol. 83 209-230, 1974. 

Sprang, S., et al. The three-dimensional structure of Asn ° mutant of trypsin role of Asp ° in serine protease catalysis. Science 237 905-909, 1987. 

FIGURE 6.25 The three-dimensional structure of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor. 

Trypsin, chymotrypsin, and elastase all carry out the same reaction—the cleavage of a peptide chain—and although their structures and mechanisms are quite similar, they display very different specificities. Trypsin cleaves peptides... 

Until recently, the catalytic role of Asp ° in trypsin and the other serine proteases had been surmised on the basis of its proximity to His in structures obtained from X-ray diffraction studies, but it had never been demonstrated with certainty in physical or chemical studies. As can be seen in Figure 16.17, Asp ° is buried at the active site and is normally inaccessible to chemical modifying reagents. In 1987, however, Charles Craik, William Rutter, and their colleagues used site-directed mutagenesis (see Chapter 13) to prepare a mutant trypsin with an asparagine in place of Asp °. This mutant trypsin possessed a hydrolytic activity with ester substrates only 1/10,000 that of native trypsin, demonstrating that Asp ° is indeed essential for catalysis and that its ability to immobilize and orient His is crucial to the function of the catalytic triad. 

Look up the structure of human insulin (Section 26.7), and indicate w here in each chain the molecule is cleaved by trypsin and chymotrypsin. 

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