Molecular cloning and purification of Ac-TMP, a developmentally regulated putative tissue inhibitor of metalloprotease released in relative abundance by adult Ancylostoma hookworms.

A cDNA encoding a putative tissue inhibitor of metalloprotease was cloned from an Ancylostoma caninum adult hookworm cDNA library by immunoscreening with anti-hookworm secretory products antiserum. Ac-TMP (A. caninum tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase) is encoded by a 480-bp mRNA with a predicted open reading frame of 140 amino acids (molecular weight, 16,100 Da) that contains one potential N-linked glycosylation site and an N-terminal Cys-X-Cys consensus sequence. The open reading frame corresponds to a putative hookworm tissue inhibitor of metalloproteases (TIMP) with 33% identity and 50% similarity to the N-terminal domain of human TIMP-2. Analysis by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction indicates that transcription of Ac-tmp is restricted to the adult stage. The protein was isolated from A. caninum adult secretory products by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and identified as one of the most abundant proteins released by the parasite. To our knowledge, this is the first description of a TIMP from a parasitic invertebrate.