Defective binding of SPINK1 variants is an uncommon mechanism for impaired trypsin inhibition in chronic pancreatitis.

The serine protease inhibitor Kazal type 1 (SPINK1) protects the pancreas from intrapancreatic trypsin activation that can lead to pancreatitis. Loss-of-function genetic variants of SPINK1 increase the risk for chronic pancreatitis, often by diminishing inhibitor expression or secretion. Variants that are secreted normally have been presumed to be pathogenic because of defective trypsin inhibition, but evidence has been lacking. Here, we report quantitative studies on the inhibition of human trypsins by wildtype SPINK1 and seven secreted missense variants. We found that tyrosine sulfation of human trypsins weakens binding of SPINK1 because of altered interactions with Tyr43 in the SPINK1 reactive loop. Using authentic sulfated human trypsins, we provide conclusive evidence that SPINK1 variants N34S, N37S, R65Q, and Q68R have unimpaired inhibitory activity, whereas variant P55S exhibits a small and clinically insignificant binding defect. In contrast, rare variants K41N and I42M that affect the reactive-site peptide bond of SPINK1 decrease inhibitor binding by 20,000- to 30,000-fold and three- to sevenfold, respectively. Taken together, the observations indicate that defective trypsin inhibition by SPINK1 variants is an uncommon mechanism in chronic pancreatitis. The results also strengthen the notion that a decline in inhibitor levels explains pancreatitis risk associated with the large majority of SPINK1 variants.

Biochemical characterization of Ty1 retrotransposon protease.

Ty1 is one of the many transposons in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The life-cycle of Ty1 shows numerous similarities with that of retroviruses, e.g. the initially synthesized polyprotein precursor undergoes proteolytic processing by the protease. The retroviral proteases have become important targets of current antiretroviral therapies due to the critical role of the limited proteolysis of Gag-Pol polyprotein in the replication cycle and they therefore belong to the most well-studied enzymes. Comparative analyses of retroviral and retroviral-like proteases can help to explore the key similarities and differences which may help understanding how resistance is developed against protease inhibitors, but the available information about the structural and biochemical characteristics of retroviral-like, and especially retrotransposon, proteases is limited. To investigate the main characteristics of Ty1 retrotransposon protease of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, untagged and His6-tagged forms of Ty1 protease were expressed in E. coli. After purification of the recombinant proteins, activity measurements were performed using synthetic oligopeptide and fluorescent recombinant protein substrates, which represented the wild-type and the modified forms of naturally occurring cleavage sites of the protease. We investigated the dependence of enzyme activity on different reaction conditions (pH, temperature, ionic strength, and urea concentration), and determined enzyme kinetic parameters for the studied substrates. Inhibitory potentials of 10 different protease inhibitors were also tested. Ty1 protease was not inhibited by the inhibitors which have been designed against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease and are approved as antiretroviral therapeutics. A quaternary structure of homodimeric Ty1 protease was proposed based on homology modeling, and this structure was used to support interpretation of experimental results and to correlate some structural and biochemical characteristics with that of other retroviral proteases.

Use of Recombinant Fusion Proteins in a Fluorescent Protease Assay Platform and Their In-gel Renaturation.

Proteases are intensively studied enzymes due to their essential roles in several biological pathways of living organisms and in pathogenesis; therefore, they are important drug targets. We have developed a magnetic-agarose-bead-based assay platform for the investigation of proteolytic activity, which is based on the use of recombinant fusion protein substrates. In order to demonstrate the use of this assay system, a protocol is presented on the example of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease. The introduced assay platform can be utilized efficiently in the biochemical characterization of proteases, including enzyme activity measurements in mutagenesis, kinetic, inhibition, or specificity studies, and it may be suitable for high-throughput substrate screening or may be adapted to other proteolytic enzymes. In this assay system, the applied substrates contain N-terminal hexahistidine (His6) and maltose-binding protein (MBP) tags, cleavage sites for tobacco etch virus (TEV) and HIV-1 proteases, and a C-terminal fluorescent protein. The substrates can be efficiently produced in Escherichia coli cells and easily purified using nickel (Ni)-chelate-coated beads. During the assay, the proteolytic cleavage of bead-attached substrates leads to the release of fluorescent cleavage fragments, which can be measured by fluorimetry. Additionally, cleavage reactions can be analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). A protocol for the in-gel renaturation of assay components is also described, as partial renaturation of fluorescent proteins enables their detection based on molecular weight and fluorescence.