The type of proteinase and the nature of the active site of the human adenovirus proteinase are unknown. For these reasons we produced an inhibitor profile of the enzyme. Enzyme activity in disrupted virions was inhibited by several serine-specific as well as cysteine-specific proteinase inhibitors. Of the inhibitors that worked, the most useful potentially in illuminating the nature of the act...

Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease of the supporting structures of the teeth caused by, among other pathogens, Prevotella intermedia. Many strains of P. intermedia are resistant to killing by the human complement system, which is present at up to 70% of serum concentration in gingival crevicular fluid. Incubation of human serum with recombinant cysteine protease of P. intermedia (interpai...

Amebiasis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Invasion by Entamoeba histolytica trophozoites causes secretion of proinflammatory cytokines from host epithelial cells, leading to a local acute inflammatory response, followed by lysis of colonic cells. Extracellular cysteine proteinases from amebic trophozoites are key virulence factors and have a number of important interactio...

Cystatin A (acid cysteine proteinase inhibitor; ACPI) is a natural inhibitor of cysteine proteinases. It has been suggested that an inverse correlation exists between cystatin A and malignant progression. We wanted to assess the biological and clinical significance of cystatin A in infiltrative breast carcinoma by immunohistochemical staining. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded material from 440 ...

African swine fever virus (ASFV) encodes two polyprotein precursors named pp220 and pp62 that are sequentially processed during viral infection, giving rise to six major structural proteins. These reside at the core shell, a matrix domain located between the endoplasmic reticulum-derived inner envelope and the DNA-containing nucleoid. Proteolytic processing of the polyprotein precursors is cata...

Cysteine proteinase inhibitor (CPI) forms from human liver were purified from the tissue homogenate by alkaline denaturation of cysteine proteinases with which they are complexed, acetone fractionation, affinity chromatography on S-carboxymethyl-papain-Sepharose and chromatofocusing. The multiple forms of CPI were shown immunologically to be forms of two proteins, referred to as CPI-A (comprisi...

Scientists at the beginning of their careers often rely on the information obtained from review articles. Furthermore, the review articles are commonly used by sponsors in making their funding decisions of scientific projects. Thus it is very important to give a balanced view of the past as well as the present of the field discussed in those papers. In the present letter I wish to complement a ...

Cowhage spicules provide an important model for histamine-independent itch. We determined that the active component of cowhage, termed mucunain, is a novel cysteine protease. We isolated mucunain and demonstrate that both native and recombinant mucunain evoke the same quality of itch in humans. We also show that mucunain is a ligand for protease-activated receptors two and four. These results s...

To determine the location of the proteinase in the covalent serpin-proteinase complex we prepared seven single-cysteine-containing variants of the Pittsburgh variant of the serpin a1-proteinase inhibitor, and we labeled each cysteine with the dansyl f luorophore. The dansyl probes were used to determine proximity of the proteinase trypsin in covalent and noncovalent complexes with the serpin, b...

Mouse cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-2α (CTLA-2α), Drosophila CTLA-2-like protein (crammer), and Bombyx cysteine protease inhibitor (BCPI) belong to a novel family of cysteine protease inhibitors (I29). Their inhibitory mechanisms were studied comparatively. CTLA-2α contains a cysteine residue (C75), which is essential for its inhibitory potency. The CTLA-2α monomer was converted to a disulfide...