Falcipain-2 (FP-2), a papain family cysteine protease of Plasmodium falciparum, is a promising target for antimalarial chemotherapy. Designing inhibitors that are highly selective for falcipain-2 has been difficult because of broad specificity of different cysteine proteinases. Because propeptide regions of cysteine proteases have been shown to inhibit their cognate enzymes specifically and sel...

Cysteine proteinases of Entamoeba histolytica are considered to be one of the most important classes of molecules responsible for the parasite's ability to destroy human tissues. Interestingly, one particular cysteine proteinase, located on the surface of E. histolytica trophozoites and designated cysteine proteinase 5 (CP5), is not expressed in the closely related but nonpathogenic species Ent...

Thougha numberof proteinaceous cysteine proteinase inhibitors (cystatins) of animal origin have long been studied in detail,1* little is well-defined about plant cystatins except for oryzacystatins from rice seeds.2'3) Preceding the studies on oryzacystatins, however, we purified a cysteine proteinase inhibitor from corn.4'5) In this study we carried out amino acid analysis and kinetic studies ...

Degradation of basement membranes and stromal extracellular matrix (ECM) is crucial for invasion and metastasis of malignant cells. Degradation of ECM is initiated by proteinases secreted by different cell types participating in tumor cell invasion, and increased expression or activity of every known class of proteinases (metallo-, serine-, aspartic-, and cysteine) has been linked to malignancy...

The amino acid sequence of cystatin, the protein from chicken egg-white that is a tight-binding inhibitor of many cysteine proteinases, is reported. Cystatin is composed of 116 amino acid residues, and the Mr is calculated to be 13 143. No striking similarity to any other known sequence has been detected. The results of computer analysis of the sequence and c.d. spectrometry indicate that the s...

After preliminary assays, with papain, bromelain and ficin, on a range of citrulline p-nitroanilides, values of Km and kcat. for the papain-catalysed hydrolysis of three derivatives, N alpha- benzyloxycarbonylcitrulline p-nitroanilide, benzyloxycarbonylphenylalanylcitrulline p-nitroanilide and benzyloxycarbonylglycylphenylalanylcitrulline p-nitroanilide, were obtained. It is concluded that benz...