It has been proposed that proteases secreted by cancer cells facilitate metastasis by degrading extracellular matrix. Estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cells secrete a Mr 52,000 pro-cath-D under estrogen stimulation, whereas this protease is produced constitutively by estrogen receptor-negative cancer cells. We report on the degradation in vitro of extracellular matrix by purified Mr 52,...

s: 1. Theberge Simon, Jacques Éric and Leung Kai P and Rouabhia Mahmoud. Un nouveau peptide antimicrobien contrôle la virulence de Candida en réduisant sa viabilité via un processus d’apoptose et de nécrose. Journée de la recherche GREB/FMD, le 10 mai, 2013 Status of publication: Published in the event proceeding Presentation: Oral Acknowledgement of federal support: Yes

The release of amphoterin by murine erythroleukaemia cells exposed to the chemical inducer hexamethylenebisacetamide represents an essential step for the process of their terminal differentiation. Once exported in the culture medium, amphoterin undergoes limited proteolysis, catalysed by a serine proteinase also secreted by stimulated cells. The isolated proteinase is responsible for degradatio...

The amino acid sequence of porcine spleen cathepsin D heavy chain has been determined and, hence, the complete structure of this enzyme is now known. The sequence of heavy chain was constructed by aligning the structures of peptides generated by cyanogen bromide, trypsin, and endo-proteinase Lys C cleavages. The structure of the light chain has been published previously. The cathepsin D molecul...

The opportunistic fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans is a major cause of mortality in immunocompromised individuals, resulting in more than 600,000 deaths per year. Many human fungal pathogens secrete peptidases that influence virulence, but in most cases the substrate specificity and regulation of these enzymes remains poorly understood. The paucity of such information is a roadblock to o...

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of exogenous farnesol in yeast-to-hyphae morphogenesis, and Saps (2, 4, 5 and 6) mRNA expressions by a Candida strain that does not produce endogenous farnesol. C. albicans was cultured in the absence and presence of farnesol at various concentrations (10, 100, and 300 µM), in proteinase induction medium, and then used to determine yeast-to- hyp...

Proteinase-3 (PR-3), a serine-proteinase mainly expressed by polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs), can degrade a variety of extracellular matrix proteins and may contribute to a number of inflammation-triggered diseases. Here, we show that in addition to Matrigel(TM) components, PR-3 is also able to degrade denatured collagen and directly activate secreted but not membrane-bound pro-MMP-2, a mat...

Protease nexin I is a proteinase inhibitor that is secreted by human fibroblasts and forms stable complexes with certain serine proteinases; the complexes then bind to the fibroblasts and are rapidly internalized and degraded. In this report, we show that this inhibitor, which is present in very low concentrations in plasma, has functional and structural similarities to C1 inhibitor, an abundan...