This study reports the isolation and biochemical characterization of two different serine proteases from Bothrops pirajai snake venom, thus providing a comparative analysis of the enzymes. The isolation process consisted of three consecutive chromatographic steps (Sephacryl S-200, Benzamidine Sepharose and C2/C18), resulting in two serine proteases, named BpirSP27 and BpirSP41 after their molec...

Serine Protease Autotransporters of Enterobacteriaceae (SPATEs) constitute a large family of proteases secreted by Escherichia coli and Shigella. SPATEs exhibit two distinct proteolytic activities. First, a C-terminal catalytic site triggers an intra-molecular cleavage that releases the N-terminal portion of these proteins in the extracellular medium. Second, the secreted N-terminal domains of ...

Secretion of proteolytic and chitinolytic enzymes is a hallmark of infection processes of Metralhizium anisopliae in response to host (insect) cuticular signals. The regulation of these enzymes (subtilisin-like proteases [Pr1a and Pr1b], trypsin-like proteases [Pr2], metalloproteases, aspartyl proteases, aminopeptidase, and chitinases) and a hydrophobin was investigated by Northern analysis and...

A marine Bacillus strain was isolated from the eastern harbour of Alexandria and identified as Bacillus sp. MIG. Maximum activity of studied proteases was obtained when the bacterium was grown in medium with 1% wheat bran and 0.5% yeast extract in addition to the mineral salts and incubated for 48 h at 30 degrees C and 120 rpm. Two alkaline proteases (Pro 1 and Pro 2) were purified to homogenei...

BACKGROUND Serine proteases are a major component of viper venoms and are thought to disrupt several distinct elements of the blood coagulation system of envenomed victims. A detailed understanding of the functions of these enzymes is important both for acquiring a fuller understanding of the pathology of envenoming and because these venom proteins have shown potential in treating blood coagula...

A number of cysteine proteases of malaria parasites have been described, and many more putative cysteine proteases are suggested by analysis of the Plasmodium falciparum genome sequence. Studies with protease inhibitors have suggested roles for cysteine proteases in hemoglobin hydrolysis, erythrocyte rupture, and erythrocyte invasion by erythrocytic malaria parasites. The best characterised Pla...

protein engineering but also for practical purposes such as potential cleaning agents, food additives, and dehairing agents. Recently, we isolated many alkalophilic actinomycetes as in our previous paper.X) One of the interesting alkalophilic actinomycetes, Nocardiopsis dassonvillei subsp. prasina OPC-210, produced two types of alkaline serine proteases (NDP-I and NDP-II). We have already repor...

Proteases from Russell's viper venom (RVV) induce a variety of toxic effects in victim. Therefore, four new RVV protease isoenzymes of molecular mass 32901.044 Da, 333631.179 Da, 333571.472 Da, and 34594.776 Da, were characterized in this study. The first 10 N-terminal residues of these serine protease isoenzymes showed significant sequence homology with N-terminal sequences of snake venom thro...

The ability of B16-F10 mouse melanoma cells to cross an amnion basement membrane was determined in the presence of strong inhibitors of both serine and cysteine proteases. The concentrations of inhibitors were at orders of magnitude higher than their Ki values to serine and cysteine proteases implicated in metastasis, thus ensuring a complete inhibition for tumor secreted proteases such as cath...