Quantification of the zymogenicity and the substrate-induced activity enhancement of complement factor D.

Complement factor D (FD) is a serine protease present predominantly in the active form in circulation. It is synthesized as a zymogen (pro-FD), but it is continuously converted to FD by circulating active MASP-3. FD is a unique, self-inhibited protease. It has an extremely low activity toward free factor B (FB), while it is a highly efficient enzyme toward FB complexed with C3b (C3bB). The structural basis of this phenomenon is known; however, the rate enhancement was not yet quantified. It has also been unknown whether pro-FD has any enzymatic activity. In this study, we aimed to measure the activity of human FD and pro-FD toward uncomplexed FB and C3bB in order to quantitatively characterize the substrate-induced activity enhancement and zymogenicity of FD. Pro-FD was stabilized in the proenzyme form by replacing Arg25 (precursor numbering) with Gln (pro-FD-R/Q). Activated MASP-1 and MASP-3 catalytic fragments were also included in the study for comparison. We found that the complex formation with C3b enhanced the cleavage rate of FB by FD approximately 20 million-fold. C3bB was also a better substrate for MASP-1, approximately 100-fold, than free FB, showing that binding to C3b renders the scissile Arg-Lys bond in FB to become more accessible for proteolysis. Though easily measurable, this cleavage by MASP-1 is not relevant physiologically. Our approach provides quantitative data for the two-step mechanism characterized by the enhanced susceptibility of FB for cleavage upon complex formation with C3b and the substrate-induced activity enhancement of FD upon its binding to C3bB. Earlier MASP-3 was also implicated as a potential FB activator; however, MASP-3 does not cleave C3bB (or FB) at an appreciable rate. Finally, pro-FD cleaves C3bB at a rate that could be physiologically significant. The zymogenicity of FD is approximately 800, i.e., the cleavage rate of C3bB by pro-FD-R/Q was found to be approximately 800-fold lower than that by FD. Moreover, pro-FD-R/Q at approximately 50-fold of the physiological FD concentration could restore half-maximal AP activity of FD-depleted human serum on zymosan. The observed zymogen activity of pro-FD might be relevant in MASP-3 deficiency cases or during therapeutic MASP-3 inhibition.

Determination of steroids in the dissolved and in the suspended phases of wastewater and Danube River samples by gas chromatography, tandem mass spectrometry.

In this paper, a new working approach is described for the analysis of steroids as environmental water pollutants. As novelty to the field, steroids were identified and quantified both in the dissolved and in the suspended phases, as their trimethylsilyl-(oxime)-ether derivatives, applying a recently developed tandem gas chromatographic mass spectrometric (GC-MS/MS) method, applying multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) acquisition, suitable for their quantitation in the low ng/L level, in wastewater and in Danube River samples. In addition to the analysis of filtrates obtained by the common solid phase extraction (SPE) enrichment, even the insoluble, isolated by filtration prior to the SPE, and usually discarded part of steroids were identified and quantified, simultaneously, for the first time. For this purpose a new, time, labor, cost efficient and quantitative, ultrasound assisted extraction process was developed. Reproducibility, reliability and practical utility of the ultrasound assisted extraction process were proved by the proportionality of the extracted suspended steroids obtained from different sample volumes: prepared from 0.5L and 1.0 L influent wastewater, as well as from 3 L, 5 L and 10 L Danube River water samples. Steroids' concentrations, identified and quantified in suspended conditions, showed proportionality, characterized with the relative standard deviation percentages (RSD%) of analyses: varying in case of Danube River water in the range of 0.92-6.0%, with an average of 4.10% RSD, while in the case of influent wastewater in the range of 1.59-5.8%, with an average of 4.03% RSD. Partition of steroids, between the dissolved and suspended phases of influent and effluent wastewaters and river water samples, meaning, the total amounts of steroids that the ecosystem is liable to, were defined in river water samples for the first time. Distribution of found steroids revealed that their considerable and/or overwhelming part (relating to their total amounts), are present in suspended phases: in average, 71% from wastewater and 64% from Danube River samples.