Caspase-like activity is associated with bacterial infection of the urine in urinary tract diseases.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a serious public health problem. They can be caused by a number of pathogens, but the most common are Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus saprophyticus. Bacterial infection is diagnosed by examining a urine sample. The presence of bacteria or white blood cells is determined under a microscope or a urine culture is performed. In this study, we used a panel of chromogenic substrates for the qualitative determination of specific enzyme activity in the urine of patients with confirmed bacterial infection and/or urinary tract disease. Healthy patients were used as a control group. It turned out that in the case of Escherichia coli infection, we observed the activity of the caspase subunit of the human 20S proteasome. We did not observe similar correlations for infections with other types of bacteria.

Detection of ADAM15 in urine from patients with bladder cancer.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the United States and Europe. Of the cancers, bladder cancer is the 10th most frequently diagnosed cancer and the 13th most frequently diagnosed cancer in men. There are many studies showing that proteolytic enzymes, e.g. A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinases (ADAMs), play a key role in the development and progression of neoplasms. In this paper, we present the use of chromogenic substrate of ADAM15 for the qualitative determination of specific activity of enzyme in urine of patients with confirmed bladder cancer. In the first step, we optimized the substrate molecule in non-primed positions using combinatorial chemistry. By means of the obtained ABZ-His-Ala-Arg-Gly-ANB-NH2 peptide, we detected ADAM15 activity in urine samples collected from patients diagnosed with bladder cancer. In contrast, we did not observe such activity in urine obtained from healthy volunteers.