A new assay for proteases using fluorescent labeling of proteins.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to W Troll.
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Chickens (Gallus domesticus) were protected from the acute gamma-irradiation-induced mortality (within 24 hours) by the proteolytic enzyme inhibitors, soy-bean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI), lima bean inhibitor (LBTI), antipain, alpha-N-benzoyl-L-arginine ethyl ester HCl (BAEE), trasylol, and leupeptin. Several other enzyme inhibitors, p-tosyl-L-arginine methyl ester HCl (TAME), alpha-tosyl-lysyl-chloromethyl ketone HCl (TLCK) and epsilon-amino caproic acid (EACA), did not protect. EACA even increased the mortality caused by gamma-irradiation. The pattern of protective enzyme inhibitors suggests involvement of a kallikrein-like enzyme. SBTI and antipain also protected against low range lethal gamma-irradiation exposures, 690 R in BALB/c and 880 R in SJL/J mice. It is suggested that enhanced vascular permeability, which in chickens is known to be the cause of the irradiation mortality during the first 24 hours, may also contribute to the mortality in mice during the first week after irradiation.
Crude extracts containing protease inhibitors from edible legumes (canned chick-peas, canned kidney beans and bean curd) were capable of blocking the superoxide response to human polymorphonuclear leukocytes produced by the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Protease inhibitors purified from crude extracts more effectively blocked the superoxide response produced by TPA. Bowman-Birk soybean inhibitor was more effective in blocking this effect of the tumor promoter than Kunitz soybean inhibitor. The significance of protease inhibitors in edible legumes and the possible role of free oxygen radicals in tumor promotion are discussed.
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Comparison was made of the ability of the potent tumor promoter phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), as well as less active PMA analogs and non-phorbol ester tumor promoters, to stimulate superoxide anion radical (O-.2) production by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). The rate of O-.2 production was found to correlate with the tumor-promoting activity of the phorbol esters as opposed to their inflammatory activity. Mezerein and telocidin B were slightly better stimulators of O-.2 production than PMA. Acetic acid was inactive. These data are discussed in terms of a possible role for O-.2 and other reactive oxygen species in tumor promotion.
Plasminogen activator (PA) activity was analyzed in normal and transformed 10T1/2 mouse fibroblasts treated with the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and the protease inhibitors antipain, leupeptin, and soybean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI). TPA induced PA activity in normal 10T1/2 cells was inhibited by antipain. Transformed 10T1/2 cells maintained high levels of PA activity which were not further stimulated by the addition of TPA. Similarly, antipain inhibited the PA activity of the transformed cultures. Leupeptin and SBTI had no effect. These findings, in light of the fact that antipain has been shown to suppress the promotional effect of TPA in X-ray induced malignant transformation, may suggest a definite role for proteases in the transformational event or maintenance of the transformed state.
In Escherichia coli, DNA damage by carcinogenic agents results in the coordinate expression of a diversity of functions (SOS functions), many of which are thermally inducible without any damage to DNA in a tif-1 mutant. These include prophage induction, filamentous growth, and an error-prone DNA repair activity, which is responsible for ultraviolet-induced mutagenesis. Ethionine causes hepatic carcinoma in rats after prolonged feeding but is not a mutagen in the Ames test. The present study shows that 10 mM ethionine prevents the thermal induction of lambda-prophage in a tif-1 derivative of E. coli. The enhancement of mutation, which normally occurs at high temperature after a low dose of ultraviolet light, is also blocked by ethionine. Ethionine does not block, to any appreciable extent, the incorporation of radioactive precursors into RNA, DNA, or protein.
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Because exposure to compounds of arsenic has been implicated as a cause of cancer, an investigation of the mutagenicity of sodium aresenite in E coli and in Chinese hamster cells was performed. In the E coli system, Trp + revertants were not induced by arsenite in a variety of experimental protocols including spot tests, treat and plate protocols, and fluctuation tests. The mutator effect of a tif-1 strain was partially blocked by arsenite. Arsenite did not cause the induction of lambda prophage. In Chinese hamster cells, arsenite did not induce ouabain-resistant mutants or thioguanine-resistant mutants. We conclude that arsenite is not mutagenic to E coli or to Chinese hamster cells. When added to the plating medium, arsenite can act as an anti-mutagen by inhibition of induction of the error-prone SOS repair system in E coli.
This paper examines the relationship between feeding a diet rich in protease inhibitors and the reduction of mammary cancer induced by x-irradiation in Sprague-Dawley rats. Of a total of 145 irradiated animals, 44% of the 45 rats fed a raw soybean diet containing a high concentration of protease inhibitor developed mammary tumors as compared to 74% of 50 rats fed a casein diet containing no protease inhibitor. Animals fed Purina rat chow which contained low levels of protease inhibitor exhibited a 70% mammary tumor incidence. No spontaneous neoplasms were found in any of the non-irradiated animals on the raw soybean diet whereas about 10% of the animals on the protease-free diet developed tumors. Thus, soybeans which are rich in protease inhibitors reduced the induction of mammary cancer in x-irradiated rats. This work suggests that diets rich in protease inhibitors may contribute to reducing cancer incidence in man.
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Using cultured normal hamster embryo cells and the heterploid mouse C3H cell line 10T1/2, clone 8, we have studied the effect of the protease inhibitor antipain on x-ray-induced neoplastic transformation. We found in both cell systems that, while there was no effect on cell survival as compared to irradiated controls, the addition of antipain at a concentration of 6 microgram/ml to the cultures 24 hr prior to irradiation resulted in enhanced transformation as compared to the frequency in cultures exposed to radiation alone. Yet the addition of antipain to cultures 10 min after irradiation resulted in a decreased transformation rate. This decrease was not found when antipain was added to the mouse cells 24 hr after irradiation or to the hamster cells 48 hr after irradiation. These results suggest that the protease inhibitor antipain has more than one mechanism of action in modulating the fixation and expression of transformation by x-irradiation, possibly by the modification of DNA repair.
A direct rate assay for plasminogen activator has been developed using a synthetic fluorogenic peptide substrate, 7-(N-Cbz-glycylglycylargininamido)-4-methylcoumarin trifluoroacetate. The assay correlates well with the standard 125I-labeled fibrin plate assay using highly purified urokinase, culture fluids from WI-38, Chinese hamster vary or HeLa cells, or Rous sarcoma virus-transformed chick fibroblasts as the source of plasminogen activator. The assay is sensitive, rapid, and linear throughout a wide range of enzyme concentrations. With this substrate it is possible to determine inhibitor profiles for the various plasminogen activators, independently of the interfering potential of plasmin. All of the enzymes tested are inhibited by leupeptin and antipain but not by the related aldehydes, elastatinal and chymostatin. The macromolecular inhibitors soybean trypsin inhibitor and trasylol have little or no effect on the plasminogen activators tested. This substrate should be useful for the study of the effect of various agents on functional changes in cells secreting this enzyme and also should allow kinetic measurements of potential inhibitors.
To test whether lysosomal degranulation of phagocytes is associated with antibody-dependent cytotoxicity, eggs of Arbacia punctulata were used as targets for blood phagocytes of Mustelus canis. Eggs were coated with heat-aggregated dogfish IgM and exposed to phagocytes, and cytolysis of eggs was observed by Nomarski optics. Phagocytes adhered, degranulated, and raised fertilization membranes resembling those induced by sperm or ionophore A23187. Lysis was then observed as damage radiating from the point of phagocyte-egg contact. By 4 hr, coated eggs exposed to phagocytes released 8.9, 12.3, and 7.4% of total catalase (EC 1.11.1.6), beta-glucuronidase (EC 3.2.1.31), and superoxide dismutase (EC 1.15.1.1) into the medium. Cytotoxic enzyme release significantly exceeded that from uncoated eggs incubated with phagocytes or eggs alone (uncoated or coated). Because activated eggs release a neutral protease, it was considered possible that this enzyme might be responsible for autolysis of eggs. This possibility was excluded because (i) lysis of eggs was not inhibited by soybean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI) whereas the egg protease was sensitive to SBTI, and (ii) the major trypsin-like activity of phagocytes was not inhibited by SBTI. These experiments demonstrate that Ig-coated cells are first activated, and then killed, when exposed to degranulating phagocytes and suggest that enzymes from attacking phagocytes, and not target cells, are responsible for cell death.