Correspondence to: Dr N Vergnolle, Mucosal Inflammation Research Group, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N4N1; [email protected] _________________________ O f all the body systems, the gastrointestinal tract is the most exposed to proteinases. Under physiological conditions, digestive pr...

Proteinases such as thrombin and trypsin can affect tissues by activating a novel family of G protein-coupled proteinase-activated receptors (PARs 1-4) by exposing a 'tethered' receptor-triggering ligand (TL). Work with synthetic TL-derived PAR peptide sequences (PAR-APs) that stimulate PARs 1, 2 and 4 has shown that PAR activation can play a role in many tissues, including the gastrointestinal...

The secretion of proteolytic enzymes by pathogenic microorganisms is one of the most successful strategies used by pathogens to colonize and infect the host organism. The extracellular microbial proteinases can seriously deregulate the homeostatic proteolytic cascades of the host, including the kinin-forming system, repeatedly reported to be activated during bacterial infection. The current stu...

Correspondence to: Dr N Vergnolle, Mucosal Inflammation Research Group, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N4N1; [email protected] _________________________ O f all the body systems, the gastrointestinal tract is the most exposed to proteinases. Under physiological conditions, digestive pr...

The local balance between proteinase inhibitors and proteinases determines local proteolytic activity. Various studies have demonstrated the importance of serine proteinase inhibitors in regulating the activity of serine proteinases that are released by leucocytes during inflammation. Recently it has been shown that these inhibitors may also display functions that are distinct from those associ...

Fish viscera have wide biotechnological potential as a source of digestive enzymes, especially proteinases. The biological diversity of fish species provides a wide array of enzymes with unique properties. Fish digestive proteolytic enzymes most commonly found include pepsin and trypsin. Those enzymes from fish viscera may have the advantages for the applications in the food industry since thei...