Background: Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors are a new class of potent lipid-lowering drugs. Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) is the key pathogenic factor leading to atherosclerosis. However, its effect on ox-LDL levels has not been clinically reported. For very high-risk Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) patients, guidelines propose stricte...

Proteases are the largest family of enzymes in the human genome and play central roles in a wide range of physiological processes.1 To carry out these diverse functions, proteolytic enzymes have evolved highly tuned substrate specificities that allow them to degrade specific cellular proteins in response to appropriate signals. For many proteases, this specificity is encoded by the amino acid s...

OBJECTIVE Estrogen deficiency is linked with increased low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. The hormone receptor mediating this effect is unknown. G-protein estrogen receptor (GPER) is a recently recognized G-protein-coupled receptor that is activated by estrogens. We recently identified a common hypofunctional missense variant of GPER, namely P16L. However, the role of GPER in LDL metabo...

We previously isolated three extracellular endogenous enzymes from a Streptomyces albogriseolus mutant strain which were targets of Streptomyces subtilisin inhibitor (SSI) (S. Taguchi, A. Odaka, Y. Watanabe, and H. Momose, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 61:180-186, 1995). In the present study, of the three enzymes the largest one, with a molecular mass of 45 kDa (estimated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-...

Subtilisin E (SbtE) is a member of the ubiquitous superfamily of serine proteases called subtilases and serves as a model for understanding propeptide-mediated protein folding mechanisms. Unlike most proteins that adopt thermodynamically stable conformations, the native state of SbtE is trapped into a kinetically stable conformation. While kinetic stability offers distinct functional advantages...

A study of the comparative specificities of cr-chymotrypsin and subtilisin Carlsberg has been focused mainly on the extent to which a-acetamido groups of some specific and nonspecific activated ester substrates affect the reactivity of each enzyme. Comparisons are based upon k, and k,: K,,, corrected for substrate intrinsic reactivities ((k,), and (k,: K&J. Among p-nitrophenyl P-phenylpropionat...

Unfolding of the native conformation of pancreatic ribonuclease disrupts certain intramolecular associations of amino acids involving tyrosine residues (1) ; the subsequent absorbance changes serve as an index of the extent of denaturation of the enzyme (2). Of the 6 tyrosine residues of RNase A, 3 display distinct spectral properties which may be evaluated by determination of changes in ultrav...

Approximate Hammett reaction constants rho calculated from k2/K8 values of several phenyl esters of N-acetyl-L-phenylalanine, hippuric acid, and beta-phenylpropionic acid are 0.0, 0.4, and 1.0 respectively. To determine whether the lack of substituent effect of k2/K8 with the N-acetyl-L-phenylalanine esters is a result of substituent-insensitive k2 or rate-limiting association of enzyme and sub...