Search

Aeromonas neutral protease possesses two residues critical to its activity. One has a pKa of 5.5 in both the free enzyme and the enzyme-substrate complex and must be deprotonated for maximal activity. The other, which ionizes at pH 7.1 in the free enzyme and at pH 7.4 in the enzyme-substrate complex, must be protonated for optimal enzyme action. The protease is reversibly inhibited by aminoacyl hydroxamates, peptides containing a phenylalanyl residue, phosphoryl-L-phenylalanylglycylglycine, and by beta-phenylpropionyl-L-phenylalanine. The pH dependence of inhibition by the latter revealed that a residue with a pKa of 5.6 influences inhibitor binding. Compounds containing both a hydroxamido group and a chloroacetyl group are particularly effective in inactivating the enzyme, and inhibition is enhanced by hydrophobic residues. Thus, a 33-fold molar excess of chloroacetyl-N-hydroxy-L-phenylalanyl-L-alanyl-L-alanine amide rapidly inactivated Aeromonas neutral protease. Carbethoxylation experiments resulted in a 90% loss in activity which was fully reversible by hydroxylamine; spectral analysis indicated the involvement of a single histidine residue. Protection against both esterification and carbethoxylation was furnished by the presence of beta-phenylproprionyl-L-phenylalanine. Inactivation experiments suggest that a glutamic or aspartic acid and a histidine residue are responsible for the pKa values revealed by pH dependence studies.

Bestatin reversibly inhibits Aeromonas aminopeptidase (EC 3.4.11.10) in a process that is remarkable for its unusual degree of time dependence. The binding of bestatin by both Aeromonas aminopeptidase and cytosolic leucine aminopeptidase (EC 3.4.11.1) is slow and tight, with Ki values (determined from rate constants) of 1.8 X 10(-8) and 5.8 X 10(-10) M, respectively. In contrast, microsomal aminopeptidase (EC 3.4.11.2) binds bestatin in a rapidly reversible process with a Ki value of 1.4 X 10(-6) M. Kinetic analysis of the slow inhibition observed is facilitated by the use of a variety of experimental treatments, primarily measurements made during pre-equilibrium; however, careful selection of conditions permits use also of steady state observations. When titrated with bestatin, 1 mol of cytosolic leucine aminopeptidase (containing 6 g atoms each of zinc and manganese) is rendered 80% inactive by 1 mol of inhibitor, thus suggesting that enzymatic activity depends on one active site/hexamer; titration of Aeromonas aminopeptidase by bestatin reveals a 1:1 stoichiometry. Amastatin inhibits all three aminopeptidases through the mechanism of slow, tight binding with Ki values ranging from 3.0 X 10(-8) to 2.5 X 10(-10) M. This behavior of microsomal aminopeptidase contrasts sharply with its rapidly reversible inhibition by bestatin. The slow, tight binding observed with five of the six aminopeptidase-inhibitor pairs investigated suggests the formation of a transition state analog complex between the enzyme and inhibitor. Physical evidence consistent with this possibility was provided by the observation that both bestatin and amastatin perturb the absorption spectrum of cobalt Aeromonas aminopeptidase.

The absorption spectrum of cobalt(II)-substituted Aeromonas aminopeptidase is markedly perturbed by the presence of equimolar concentrations of D-amino acid hydroxamates and acyl hydroxamates that have previously been shown to be powerful inhibitors of this enzyme (Wilkes, S. H., and Prescott, J. M. (1983) J. Biol. Chem. 258, 13517-13521). D-Valine hydroxamate produces the most distinctive perturbation, splitting the characteristic 527 nm absorption peak of the cobalt enzyme to form peaks at 564, 520, and 487 nm with molar extinction values of 126, 98, and 67 M-1 cm-1, respectively. A qualitatively similar perturbation, albeit with lower extinction values, results from the addition of D-leucine hydroxamate, whereas D-alanine hydroxamate perturbs the spectrum, but does not evoke the peak at 564 nm. In contrast, hydroxamates of L-valine and L-leucine in concentrations equi-molar to that of the enzyme produce only faint indications of change in the spectrum, but the hydroxamates of several other L-amino acids perturb the spectrum essentially independently of the identity of the side chain and in a qualitatively different manner from that of D-valine hydroxamate and D-leucine hydroxamate. At the high enzyme:substrate ratios used in the spectral experiments, L-leucine hydroxamate and L-valine hydroxamate proved to be rapidly hydrolyzed, hence their inability to perturb the spectrum of the cobalt-substituted enzyme during the time course of a spectral experiment. Values of kcat for L-amino acid hydroxamates, all of which are good reversible inhibitors of the hydrolysis of L-leucine-p-nitroanilide by Aeromonas aminopeptidase, were found to range from 0.01 min-1 to 5.6 min-1 for the native enzyme and from 0.27 min-1 to 108 min-1 for the cobalt-substituted enzyme; their km values toward the cobalt aminopeptidase range from 1.2 × 10(-7) M to 1.9 × 10(-5) M. The mutual exclusivity of binding for hydroxamate inhibitors and 1-butaneboronic acid, previously shown by kinetics (Baker, J. O., Wilkes, S. H., Bayliss, M. E., and Prescott, J. M. (1983) Biochemistry 22, 2098-2103), was reflected in the characteristic spectra produced by these two types of inhibitors.

Hydroxamates of amino acids and aliphatic acids are effective inhibitors of Aeromonas proteolytica amino-peptidase (EC 3.4.11.10) and of both the cytosolic (EC 3.4.11.1) and microsomal (EC 3.4.11.2) aminopeptidases of swine kidney. Cytosolic leucine aminopeptidase and the Aeromonas enzyme were inhibited to a greater extent by D isomers than by the L enantiomorphs, manganese-activated kidney cytosolic leucine aminopeptidase being inhibited 10 times more effectively by D-leucine and D-valine hydroxamic acids than by the L isomers. The D isomers of these two compounds inhibited Aeromonas aminopeptidase to an even greater extent with Ki values of 2 X 10(-9) and 5 X 10(-9), respectively, whereas the corresponding L isomers were bound 150 times less tightly. With the Aeromonas enzyme, a comparison of inhibition by racemic mixtures with that of the corresponding L isomers indicated that in all cases the contribution of the D isomer was predominant. Isocaproic hydroxamic acid inhibited this enzyme equally well as L-leucine hydroxamic acid, indicating that the amino group orientation in the D isomer contributes to the binding efficacy. Swine kidney microsomal aminopeptidase was also inhibited by D isomers of leucine and valine hydroxamic acids but in contrast to the other two enzymes, the inhibition was 10-fold less than that observed for the corresponding L isomers. Cytosolic leucine aminopeptidase with either 6 g atoms of zinc per mol or 12 g atoms of zinc per mol was inhibited only slightly by any of the hydroxamic acid compounds; evidently enzyme-bound manganese (or magnesium) is specific for hydroxamate binding to this aminopeptidase.