Cross-Class Inhibition of Elastolytic Cysteine Proteinases by the Human Serpin SCCA1. • 1824

The reactive site loop of the serpin SCCA1 is essential for cysteine proteinase inhibition.

The high-molecular-weight serine proteinase inhibitors (serpins) are restricted, generally, to inhibiting proteinases of the serine mechanistic class. However, the viral serpin, cytokine response modifier A, and the human serpins, antichymotrypsin and squamous cell carcinoma antigen 1 (SCCA1), inhibit different members of the cysteine proteinase class. Although serpins employ a mobile reactive ...

Elastolytic proteinases of the human macrophage.

Inhibition of cysteine proteinases in lysosomes and whole cells.

Inhibitors of cysteine proteinases have been used extensively to dissect the roles of these proteinases in cells. Surprisingly though, little work has been performed to demonstrate unequivocally that the inhibitors reach and inactivate their target proteinases in cell culture or in vivo. In the present study, the permeability of lysosomes and whole cells has been studied. Benzyloxycarbonyl (Z)-...

Inactivation of papain by antithrombin due to autolytic digestion: a model of serpin inactivation of cysteine proteinases.

Cross-class inhibition of cysteine proteinases by serpins differs from serpin inhibition of serine proteinases primarily in that no stable serpin-cysteine proteinase complex can be demonstrated. This difference in reaction mechanism was elucidated by studies of the inactivation of the cysteine proteinases, papain and cathepsin L, by the serpin antithrombin. The two proteinases were inactivated ...

Analysis of human immunoglobulin-degrading cysteine proteinases of Trichomonas vaginalis.

Trichomonas vaginalis is a protozoan parasite that causes a widely distributed sexually transmitted disease (STD). Since immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to specific trichomonad immunogens are found in serum and vaginal washes (VWs) from patients with trichomoniasis, a potential mechanism of immune evasion by this parasite might be the ability of T. vaginalis proteinases to degrade human immun...