Generation of a stable activated thrombin activable fibrinolysis inhibitor variant.

Activated thrombin activable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFIa), generated upon activation of TAFI, exerts an antifibrinolytic effect. TAFIa is a thermolabile enzyme, inactivated through a conformational change. The objective of the current study was to generate a stable variant of human TAFIa. Using a site-directed as well as a random mutagenesis approach to generate a library of TAFI mutants, we identified two mutations that increase TAFIa stability, i.e. a Ser305 to Cys and a Thr329 to Ile mutation, respectively. Combining these mutations in TAFI-Ala147-Ile325, the most stable isoform of TAFIa (half-life of 9.4 +/- 0.4 min), revealed a TAFIa half-life of 70 +/- 3.1 min (i.e. an 11-fold increase versus 6.3 +/- 0.3 min for TAFIa-Ala147-Thr325, the most frequently occurring isoform of TAFI in humans) at 37 degrees C. Moreover, clot lysis (induced by tissue plasminogen activator) experiments in which TAFI-Ala147-Cys305-Ile325-Ile329 was added to TAFI-depleted plasma revealed a 50% clot lysis time of 313 +/- 77 min (i.e. a 3.0-fold increase versus 117 +/- 10 min for TAFI-Ala147-Thr325). The availability of a more stable TAFIa variant will facilitate the search for inhibitors and allow further structural analysis to elucidate the mechanisms of the instability of TAFIa.

Development of ELISAs measuring the extent of TAFI activation.

OBJECTIVE: To date, quantitation of TAFI antigen levels has been mainly focused on "total" antigen levels and has been shown to yield ambiguous results because of the existence of different isoforms and various degrees of activation. Our objective was to develop assays that allow measuring the extent of TAFI activation. METHODS AND RESULTS: A variety of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were evaluated for their preferential reactivity toward TAFI before and after activation, and toward the recombinantly expressed activation peptide. Three ELISAs with distinct reactivities were selected: recognizing either exclusively nonactivated TAFI, the released activation peptide, or exclusively TAFIa (activated TAFI). Evaluation of TAFI activation during clot lysis revealed that decreases of TAFI levels are associated with increases of the released activation peptide and TAFIa levels. In addition, antigenic measurement of TAFIa parallels activity measured by chromogenic assay. Analyzing plasma samples revealed that subjects with hyperlipidemia had significantly higher plasma levels of both the activation peptide (109.2 versus 95.5; P<0.001) and TAFIa (112.1 versus 103.3; P=0.03), and not of TAFI antigen (92.5 versus 87.9; P=0.07) (results in % of plasma pooled from normolipidemic subjects). CONCLUSIONS: ELISAs that allow to measure the extent of TAFI activation were developed. These ELISAs constitute more sensitive markers in studies on the relationship between TAFI and cardiovascular diseases.