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Biomedical subjects

A J Barrett

Publications and source records attributed to A J Barrett.

At least 325 records · Page 18Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Further characterization of the covalent linking reaction of alpha 2-macroglobulin.

It is shown that non-proteolytic proteins can become covalently linked to alpha 2M (alpha 2-macroglobulin) during its reaction with proteinases, and that this probably occurs by the mechanism that leads to the covalent linking of proteinases described previously [Salvesen & Barrett (1980) Biochem. J. 187, 695-701]. The covalent linking of trypsin was at least partly dependent on the presence of unblocked lysine side chains on the protein. The covalent linking of proteinases was inhibited by nucleophiles of low Mr, and these compounds were themselves linked to alpha 2M in a molar ratio approaching one per quarter subunit. Peptide "mapping" indicated that the site of proteinase-mediated incorporation of the amines was the same as that at which methylamine is incorporated in the absence of a proteinase. The nucleophile-reactive site revealed in alpha 2M after reaction with a proteinase was shown to decay with a t1/2 of 112 s, at pH 7.5. After the reaction with a proteinase or with methylamine, a free thiol group was detectable on each subunit of alpha 2M. We propose that the site for incorporation of methylamine in each subunit is a thiol ester, which in S-alpha 2M (the electrophoretically "slow" form) is sterically shielded from reaction with large nucleophiles, but is revealed as a highly reactive group, free from steric hindrance, after the proteolytic cleavage. We have designated the activated species of the molecule "alpha 2M".

Amines↗
PubMed1981

Human plasma kallikrein. A rapid purification method with high yield.

A simple method for isolation of kallikrein from human plasma is described. Before activation of the enzyme with acetone, the plasma was treated with 0.2 M-methylamine at pH 8.2 to inactivate alpha 2-macroglobulin and thus prevent the irreversible binding of the active enzyme to the inhibitor. The enzyme was adsorbed on soya-bean trypsin inhibitor-Sepharose 4B and eluted with 5 mM-NaOH, pH 11.3. It was further purified by immunoadsorption of contaminating proteins, and gel chromatography on Ultrogel AcA 44. About 3 mg of kallikrein was obtained from 400 ml of plasma (35% yield). The purified enzyme was shown to be homogeneous by electrophoretic and immunological criteria. The specific activities against benzyloxycarbonylphenylalanylarginine methylcoumarylamide, prolylphenylalanylarginine methylcoumarylamide and tosylarginine methyl ester were higher than any previously reported. The purified enzyme was resolved into two forms of mol.wts. 88 000 and 86 000 in sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis without reduction. Each consisted of three chains linked by disulphide bonds, one containing the reactive serine residue (mol.wt. 36 000 or 34 000), and two additional chains (mol.wt. 28 000 and 22 000).

Chromatography, Affinity↗
PubMed1981

Isolation and characterization of tryase, a serine proteinase from rat liver.

1. A new serine proteinase, tryase, was isolated from the membrane fraction of a post-nuclear supernatant of rat liver homogenate. The enzyme was solubilized with 1 M-MgCl2 and purified to homogeneity by DEAE-cellulose chromatography and affinity chromatography with soya-bean trypsin inhibitor linked to Sepharose 4B. 2. The enzyme was identified on sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide gels by reaction with radiolabelled di-isopropyl phosphorofluoridate. Unreduced its molecular weight was 32 500, reduced it was 28 000. 3. The enzyme readily hydrolysed azocasein and tripeptide nitroanilide substrates with an arginine or lysine residue adjacent to the leaving group. D-Pro-Phe-Arg-NPhNO2 was used routinely (Km = 0.25 mM). Tryase showed little activity on blocked arginine esters or amides. 4. It was inhibited by di-isopropyl phosphorofluoridate, benzamidine, aprotinin, soya-bean and lima-bean trypsin inhibitors, Ile-Leu-Arg-CH2Cl and Phe-Ala-Arg-CH2Cl. It was not inhibited by Tos-Lys-CH2Cl. 5. Subcellular-fractionation studies showed that tryase was associated with particles similar in their sedimentation properties to lysosomes, but, since it was not present in tritosomes, it was not in the classical lysosome. 6. Rat liver contained other neutral proteinases; one of these was a serine proteinase with an apparent molecular weight of 90 000 on gel chromatography.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Cathepsin G.

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Binding Sites↗
PubMed1981

Leukocyte elastase.

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Chemical Phenomena↗
PubMed1981

A proliferative defect of human bone marrow after transplantation.

A technique which permits proliferation of CFU-C or their precursors is described. Bone marrow cells from 10 normal donors showed an increase over a 2 week culture period of total nucleated cell counts, and of granulocyte colony and cluster forming cells. During culture an adherent layer of fibroblasts and monocyte-macrophage cells formed. Bone marrow from eight patients taken between 2 weeks and 2 years after marrow transplantation did not show CFU-C proliferation or increase in total cell counts in culture. This difference did not appear to be due to changes in the adherent cell layer formation, and suggests that grafted human bone marrow shows a proliferative defect similar to that described in mouse transplantation models.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Bone marrow transplantation in severe aplastic anaemia: a survey of the European Group for Bone Marrow Transplantation (E.G.B.M.T.).

A survey of the results of bone marrow transplantation for severe aplastic anaemia in 13 European teams is reported. 159 questionnaires were analysed by univariate and multivariate analysis. The overall 1 year survival was 41.2%. The chance of survival was decreased by the presence of infection before grafting and by the use of female donors. The conditioning regimen did not influence survival. Graft rejection was influenced by the conditioning regimen and the sex of the donor. Graft-versus-host disease was influenced by the conditioning regimen, and the age and the sex of the recipient. This study defines prognostic indices which may be helpful in determining the likelihood of success after marrow transplantation for severe aplastic anaemia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Response of graft versus host disease to high doses of methyl prednisolone.

High dose methyl prednisolone (HDMP) was used to treat 25 episodes of graft versus host disease (GVHD) in 13 patients after bone marrow transplantation for aplastic anaemia or acute leukemia. All patients showed rapid improvement of GVHD following HDMP with resolutions of gut and skin manifestations over several days, but liver GVHD was less responsive to treatment. The major complication of treatment was infection and four patients died from infection following HDMP. The mode of action of HDMP may be a nonspecific anti-inflammatory effect but it appears to be rapidly effective in controlling GVH reactions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

E-64 [L-trans-epoxysuccinyl-leucyl-amido(4-guanidino)butane] and related epoxides as inhibitors of cysteine proteinases.

1. E-64 [L-trans-epoxysuccinyl-leucyl-amido(4-guanidino)butane] was found to be an active site directed irreversible inhibitor of all of the cysteine proteinases tested except clostripain, and not to affect other enzymes. Thus it seems to be a powerful selective inhibitor for cysteine proteinases in mammalian systems. 2. The very high rate of inactivation of some cysteine proteinases, including cathepsins B and L, allows the molarity of active enzyme to be determined by stoichiometric titration with E-64. This incidentally calibrates the rate assay of the enzyme in terms of molar concentrations. 3. Measurement of rates of reaction of E-64 and a number of optically active analogues with cathepsins B, H and L has given some insight into structure-activity relationships. Cathepsin H is far less reactive than the other enzymes, and generally cathepsins B and L have reactivities rather similar to each other with the epoxide inhibitors.

Binding Sites↗
PubMed1980

Human cathepsin H.

Cathepsin H was purified from human liver by a method involving autolysis and acetone fractionation, and chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, Ultrogel AcA 54, hydroxyapatite and concanavalin A-Sepharose. The procedure allowed for the simultaneous isolation of cathepsin B and cathepsin D. Cathepsin H was shown to consist of a single polypeptide chain of 28 000 mol.wt., and affinity for concanavalin A-Sepharose indicated that it was a glycoprotein. The enzyme existed in multiple isoelectric forms, the two major forms having pI values of 6.0 and 6.4; it hydrolysed azocasein (pH optimum 5.5), benzoylarginine 2-naphthylamide (Ba-Arg-NNap), leucyl 2-naphthylamide (Arg-NNap), (pH optimum 6.8). Arg-NNap and Arg-NMec, unlike Bz-Arg-NNap-, were not hydrolysed by human cathepsin B. Cathepsin H was similar to cathepsin B in being irreversibly inactivated by exposure to alkaline pH. Sensitivity to chemical inhibitors by 1 microM-leupeptin, which gave essentially complete inhibition of the other lysosomal cysteine proteinases, cathepsins B and L.

Cathepsins↗
PubMed1980

Identification of proteinases in rheumatoid synovium. Detection of leukocyte elastase cathepsin G and another serine proteinase.

Extracts of rheumatoid synovial tissue obtained at surgical synovectomy contained neutral proteinases as well as cathepsin D. The neutral proteinase activity was particle-bound but could be solubilized by 1 M MgCl2. About half of the solubilized activity adsorbed to aproptinin-Sepharose at pH 7.5 and was desorbed at pH 3.3. This activity was shown to be due to leukocyte elastase and cathepsin G by enzymological and immunological criteria. The neutral proteinase activity that did not adsorb to aprotinin-Sepharose was not due to elastase or cathepsin G. It was able to hydrolyse proteoglycan and was inhibited by diisopropylfluorophosphate, soybean and lima bean trypsin inhibitors. It was, therefore, a serine proteinase. Its inhibition characteristics were different from those of plasmin, kallikrein or thrombin. All of the neutral proteinase activity of synovial extracts was attributable to serine proteinases, no evidence of metallo-proteinases was found. The possible role of the neutral proteinases in the degradation of the matrix of cartilage is discussed. A simple procedure for purifying leukocyte elastase and cathepsin G is described as well as the raising of specific antisera to these enzymes.

Aprotinin↗
PubMed1980

Binding of anhydrotrypsin to alpha 2-macroglobulin.

Radiolabelled anhydrotrypsin was bound by alpha 2M (alpha 2-macroglobulin) sufficiently tightly to resist separation during gel electrophoresis; 2 mol of anhydrotrypsin were bound/mol of alpha 2M, but the interaction differed in important respects from that between active proteinases and alpha 2M. Anhydrotrypsin was bound by the electrophoretically 'fast' form of alpha 2M, although much less effectively than by the 'slow' form. The inactive enzyme was displaced from alpha 2M by trypsin inhibitor, the order of effectiveness being aprotinin > soya-bean trypsin inhibitor > benzamidine. Saturation of alpha 2M with anhydrotrypsin did not prevent subsequent binding and inhibition of active trypsin by the alpha 2M, and the anhydrotrypsin was not displaced during this reaction. Anhydrotrypsin bound by alpha 2M retained its ability to react with antibodies against trypsin, whereas bound trypsin did not.

Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel↗
PubMed1980

Degradation of fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase by cathepsin B.

The mechanism of degradation of fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase from rabbit muscle by the lysosomal proteinase cathepsin B was determined. Treatment of aldolase with cathepsin B destroys up to 90% of activity with fructose 1,6-bisphosphate as substrate, but activity with fructose 1-phosphate is slightly increased. Cathepsin L, another lysosomal thiol proteinase, and papain are also potent inactivators of aldolase, whereas inactivation is not caused by cathepsins D or H even at high concentrations, or by cathepsin B inhibited by leupeptin or iodoacetate. The cathepsin-B-treated aldolase shows no detectable change in subunit molecular weight, oligomer molecular weight or subunit interactions. Cathepsin B cleaves dipeptides from the C-terminus of th aldolase subunits. Four dipeptides are released sequentially: Ala-Tyr, Asn-His, Ile-Ser and Leu-Phe, and a maximum of five additional dipeptides may be released. There are indications that this peptidyldipeptidase activity of cathepsin B may be an important aspect of its action on protein substrates generally.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1980

Covalent binding of proteinases in their reaction with alpha 2-macroglobulin.

Although it is known that most of the plasma proteinase inhibitors form complexes with proteinases that are not dissociated by SDS (sodium dodecyl sulphate), there has been disagreement as to whether this is true for alpha 2M (alpha 2-macroglobulin). We have examined the stability to SDS with reduction of complexes between alpha 2M and several 125I-labelled proteinases (trypsin, plasmin, leucocyte elastase, pancreatic elastase and papain) by gel electrophoresis. For each enzyme, some molecules were separated from the denatured alpha 2M chains, but amounts ranging from 8.3% (papain) to 61.2% (trypsin) were bound with a stability indicative of a covalent link. Proteolytic activity was essential for the covalent binding to occur, and the proteinase molecules became attached to the larger of the two proteolytic derivatives (apparent mol.wt. 111 000) of the alpha 2M subunit. We take this to mean that cleavage of the proteinase-susceptible site sometimes leads to covalent-bond formation between alpha 2M and proteinase. Whatever the nature of this bond, it does not involve the active site of the proteinase, as bound serine-proteinase molecules retain the ability to react with the active-site-directed reagent [3H]Dip-F (di-isopropyl phosphorofluoridate). Our conclusion is that the ability to form covalent links is not essential for the inhibitory capacity of alpha 2M. It may, however, help to stabilize the complexes against dissociation or proteolysis.

Animals↗