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Probing the functional role of the N-terminal region of cystatins by equilibrium and kinetic studies of the binding of Gly-11 variants of recombinant human cystatin C to target proteinases.

ABSTRACT: The interaction between cystatin C variants, in which the evolutionarily conserved Gly-11 residue was substituted by Ala, Glu or Trp, and the cysteine proteinases, papain, ficin, actinidin and cathepsin B, was characterized. The substitutions reduced the affinity of binding in a manner consistent with the Gly residue of the wild-type inhibitor, allowing the N-terminal region to adopt a conformation that was optimal for interaction with target proteinases. Replacement of Gly-11 by Ala resulted in only a 5- to 100-fold reduction in binding affinity. Comparison with the affinities of wild-type cystatin C lacking the N-terminal region indicated that even this small structural change affects the conformation of this region sufficiently to largely abolish its interaction with the weakly binding proteinases, actinidin and cathepsin B. However, the substitution allows interactions of appreciable strength between the N-terminal region and the tightly binding enzymes, papain or ficin. Replacement of Gly-11 with the larger Glu and Trp residues substantially decreased the affinity of binding to all enzymes, from 10(3)- to 10(5)-fold. These substitutions further affect the conformation of the N-terminal region, so that interactions of this region with papain and ficin are also essentially eliminated. The decreased affinities of the three cystatin C variants for papain, ficin and actinidin were due exclusively to increased dissociation rate constants. In contrast, the decreased affinity between cathepsin B and the Ala-11 variant, the only one for which rate constants could be determined with this enzyme, was due almost entirely to a decreased association rate constant. This behaviour is analogous to that observed for forms of cystatin C lacking the N-terminal region and supports the conclusion that the mode of interaction of this region with target proteinases varies with the enzyme as a result of structural differences in the active-site region of the latter.

SUBMITTER: Bjork I

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1136547 | biostudies-other | 1995 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:The interaction between five N-terminally truncated forms of chicken cystatin (starting at Leu-7, Leu-8, Gly-9, Ala-10 and Asp-15) and the cysteine proteinases papain and actinidin was studied by spectroscopic, kinetic and equilibrium methods. The u.v. absorption, near-u.v. c.d. and fluorescence emission difference spectra for the interactions with papain were all similar to the corresponding spectra for intact cystatin. The second-order association rate constants at 25 degrees C, pH 7.4, I 0.15, for the binding of the truncated forms to papain varied about 2-fold, from 6 x 10(6) to 1.5 x 10(7) M-1.s-1, and were comparable to the value of 9.9 x 10(6) M-1.s-1 for intact cystatin. In contrast, the rate constants for the dissociation of the complexes with papain increased markedly with increasing extent of truncation, from 7.5 x 10(-6)s-1 for Leu7 cystatin (a truncated form of cystatin having Leu-7 as its N-terminal amino acid) to 1.6s-1 for Ala10-cystatin, whereas the dissociation rate constants for the latter form and Asp15-cystatin were similar. Consequently, the binding affinities between the truncated cystatins and papain decreased in an analogous manner, as was also shown for the interaction with actinidin by equilibrium measurements. Studies of the binding of the truncated cystatins to inactivated papains indicated that small substituents on the active-site cysteine of the enzyme can be accommodated in the complex without any loss of affinity when the N-terminal segment of the inhibitor is removed. Taken together, the results suggest that in the N-terminal region of chicken cystatin only residues preceding Ala-10 participate in the interaction with proteinases. Of these residues, Leu-7 and Leu-8 together account for about two-thirds of the unitary free energy of binding contributed by the N-terminal region, the relative importance of the two residues being dependent on the target proteinase. Both Gly-9 and residues N-terminal of Leu-7 further stabilize the interaction but contribute substantially smaller binding energies than do the two leucine residues.

Project description:Human cystatin C variants in which the evolutionarily conserved Gly-11 residue has been replaced by residues with positively charged (Arg), negatively charged (Glu), bulky hydrophobic (Trp), or small (Ser or Ala) side-chains have been produced by site-directed mutagenesis and expression in Escherichia coli. The five variants were isolated and structurally verified. Their inhibitory properties were compared with those of wild-type recombinant cystatin C by determination of the equilibrium constants for dissociation (Ki) of their complexes with the cysteine endopeptidases papain and human cathepsin B and with the cysteine exopeptidase dipeptidyl peptidase I. The Ser-11 and Ala-11 cystatin C variants displayed Ki values for the two endopeptidases that were approx. 20-fold higher than those of wild-type cystatin C, while the corresponding values for the Trp-11. Arg-11 and Glu-11 variants were increased by a factor of about 2000. In contrast, the Ki values for the interactions of all five variants with the exopeptidase differed from that of wild-type cystatin C by a factor of less than 10. Wild-type cystatin C and the Ser-11, Ala-11 and Glu-11 variants were incubated with neutrophil elastase, which in all cases resulted in the rapid hydrolysis of a single peptide bond, between amino acid residues 10 and 11. The Ki values for the interactions with papain of these three N-terminal-decapeptide-lacking cystatin C variants were 20-50 nM, just one order of magnitude higher than the value for N-terminally truncated wild-type cystatin C, which in turn was similar to the corresponding values for the full-length Glu-11, Arg-11 and Trp-11 variants. These data indicate that the crucial feature of the conserved Gly residue in position 11 of wild-type cystatin C is that this residue, devoid of a side-chain, will allow the N-terminal segment of cystatin C to adopt a conformation suitable for interaction with the substrate-binding pockets of cysteine endopeptidases, resulting in high-affinity binding and efficient inhibition. The functional properties of the remaining part of the proteinase contact area, which is built from more C-terminal inhibitor segments, are not significantly affected even when amino acids with bulky or charged side-chains replace the Gly-11 residue of the N-terminal segment.

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Probing the functional role of the N-terminal region of cystatins by equilibrium and kinetic studies of the binding of Gly-11 variants of recombinant human cystatin C to target proteinases.

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