Removal of endoproteinases from biological fluids by "sandwich affinity chromatography" with alpha 2-macroglobulin bound to zinc chelate-Sepharose.

A new method for removing nearly all active endoproteinases from fluids called "sandwich affinity chromatography" is described. It is based on strong chelate binding of alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2M) and its proteinase complexes to Zn2+-bis-carboxymethylamino-Sepharose (Zn chelate-Sepharose) and its ability to complex most active endoproteinases. The preferred performance minimizing unspecific protein adsorption is binding first alpha 2M to Zn chelate-Sepharose and then adsorbing the proteinase to the alpha 2M-Zn chelate-Sepharose using elevated salt concentrations. A suitable standard buffer, in which most proteases and alpha 2M are active and the protease-alpha 2M complex remains bound to Zn chelate-Sepharose, is 0.02 mol/liter sodium phosphate, pH 6.5, containing 0.15 mol/liter NaCl. As an example, the reaction of trypsin with alpha 2M-Zn chelate-Sepharose was studied. After saturating Zn chelate-Sepharose first with alpha 2M and then with trypsin under standard conditions, the bound alpha 2M equals the bound trypsin activity (measured with Chromozym TRY). The specific binding capacity of alpha 2M-Zn chelate-Sepharose for proteases was determined in this way to be 30-40 U trypsin, i.e., 0.40-0.54 mg/ml of gel. The balance and the fact that the bound trypsin is inaccessible to soybean trypsin inhibitor indicate that at these conditions no unspecific trypsin binding occurs. Chymotrypsin, thermolysin, elastase, bromelain, ficin, and papain are also bound at standard conditions but not exoproteases like carboxypeptidases A and Y. Advantages of the sandwich affinity chromatography are the simple loading procedure by adsorption, the high capacity of the gel material, and the possibility to reuse the Zn chelate-Sepharose after eluting reacted alpha 2M and reloading with new alpha 2M.

Lipoamide dehydrogenase from baker's yeast. Improved purification and some molecular, kinetic, and immunochemical properties.

The flavoprotein lipoamide dehydrogenase was purified, by an improved method, from commercial baker's yeast about 700-fold to apparent homogeneity with 50-80% yield. The enzyme had a specific activity of 730-900 U/mg (about twice the value of preparations described previously). The holoenzyme, but not the apoenzyme, possessed very high stability against proteolysis, heat, and urea treatment and could be reassociated, with fair yield, with the other components of yeast pyruvate dehydrogenase complex to give the active multienzyme complex. The apoenzyme was reactivated when incubated with FAD but not FMN. As other lipoamide dehydrogenases, the yeast enzyme was found to possess diaphorase activity catalysing the oxidation of NADH with various artificial electron acceptors. Km values were 0.48 mM for dihydrolipoamide and 0.15 mM for NAD. NADH was a competitive inhibitor with respect to NAD (Ki 31 microM). The native enzyme (Mr 117000) was composed of two apparently identical subunits (Mr 56000), each containing 0.96 FAD residues and one cystine bridge. The amino acid composition differed from bacterial and mammalian lipoamide dehydrogenases with respect to the content of Asx, Glx, Gly, Val, and Cys. The lipoamide dehydrogenases of baker's and brewer's yeast were immunologically identical but no cross-reaction with mammalian lipoamide dehydrogenases was found.

Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex from baker's yeast. 1. Purification and some kinetic and regulatory properties.

Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, for the first time, was highly purified from commercial baker's yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae). Proteolytic degradation was prevented by the inclusion of the protease inhibitors pepstatin A, leupeptin, and phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride during the enzyme purification. The yield from 1 kg of pressed yeast was about 15--20 mg enzyme with a specific activity of 17--30 U/mg. Most of the kinetic and regulatory properties of the yeast enzyme were found similar to those of the mammalian mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase complexes except that Km for pyruvate, when assayed at the pH optimum, was much higher than in the mammalian complexes and resembled the values reported for the complexes of gram-negative bacteria. Furthermore, neither in yeast homogenates nor in the isolated yeast pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, was any evidence found for regulation by interconversion (phosphorylation-dephosphorylation) as occurs in mammals, plants, and Neurospora crassa.

Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex from baker's yeast. 2. Molecular structure, dissociation, and implications for the origin of mitochondria.

1. Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is similar in size (s20,w 77 S) and flavin content (1.3--1.4 nmol/mg) to the complexes from mammalian mitochondria. 2. The relative molecular masses of the constituent polypeptide chains, as determined by dodecylsulfate gel electrophoresis at different gel concentrations, were: lipoate acetyltransferase (E2), 58 000; lipoamide dehydrogenase (E3), 56 000; pyruvate dehydrogenase (E1), alpha-subunit, 45 000, and beta-subunit, 35 000. Gel chromatography in the presence of 6 M guanidine . HCl gave a value of 52 000 for E2 indicating anomalous electrophoretic migration as described for the E2 components of other pyruvate dehydrogenase complexes. Thus, the organization and subunit Mr values are similar with the mammalian complexes and virtually identical with the complexes of gram-positive bacteria but differ greatly from the pyruvate dehydrogenase complexes of gram-negative bacteria. 3. The complex was resolved into its component enzymes by the following methods. E1 was obtained by treatment of the complex with elastase followed by gel chromatography on Sepharose CL-2B using a reverse ammonium sulfate gradient for elution. E2 was isolated by gel filtration of the complex in the presence of 2 M KBr, and E3 was obtained by hydroxyapatite chromatography in 8 M urea. The isolated enzymes reassociated spontaneously to give pyruvate dehydrogenase overall activity.

Bovine kidney pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. Limited proteolysis and molecular structure of the lipoate acetyltransferase component.

1. Bovine kidney pyruvate dehydrogenase multienzyme complex is inactivated by elastase in a similar manner as described earlier for papain. The core component, lipoate acetyltransferase, is cleaved by elastase into an active fragment (Mr 26000) and a fragment with apparent Mr of 45000 as analyzed by dodecylsulfate gel electrophoresis. Due to the fragmentation of the core, the enzyme complex is disassembled into its component enzymes which retain their complete enzymatic activities as assayed separately. 2. A different mechanism was found for the inactivation of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex with trypsin and some other proteases (chymotrypsin, clostripain). In these cases, the pyruvate dehydrogenase component is inactivated rapidly by limited proteolysis. More slowly, the enzyme complex is disassembled simultaneously with fragmentation of the lipoate acetyltransferase which again results in an active fragment of Mr 26000 and another fragment of apparent Mr 45000. Upon prolonged proteolysis, the latter fragment is cleaved further to give products of Mr 36000 or lower. 3. The enzyme-bound lipoyl residues of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex have been labelled covalently by incubation with [2-14C]pyruvate. After treatment of this [14C]acetyl-enzyme with papain, elastase, or trypsin, radioactivity was associated exclusively with the 45000-Mr and 36000-Mr fragments but not with the active 26000-Mr fragment. 4. It is concluded that the bovine kidney lipoate acetyltransferase core is composed of 60 subunits each consisting of two dissimilar folding domains. One of these contains the intersubunit binding sites as well as the active center for transacylation whereas the other possesses the enzyme-bound lipoyl residues.

Bovine kidney pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. Isolation of the component enzymes after limited proteolysis with papain.

1. Bovine kidney pyruvate dehydrogenase multienzyme complex is inactivated rapidly by papain. However, none of the component activities of the complex is destroyed during inactivation of the overall reaction. 2. The core component, lipoate acetyltransferase, is cleaved by papain to give principal fragments with Mr 26,500 and 26,000 (as determined by dodecylsulfate gel electrophoresis). Much more slowly, the alpha chain of the pyruvate dehydrogenase component is attacked. 3. Fragmented lipoate acetyltransferase retains its complete enzymatic activity and remains of high molecular weight. It is unable, however, to bind the other component enzymes, pyruvate dehydrogenase and lipoamide dehydrogenase. Therefore, the multienzyme complex is disassembled when treated with papain. 4. A method is described which allows the rapid and convenient isolation of nicked lipoate acetyltransferase as well as unfragmented pyruvate dehydrogenase and lipoamide dehydrogenase from papain-treated complex under very mild conditions. The two uncleaved component enzymes have identical properties and similar specific activities as enzyme preparations obtained by other, more laborious procedures.

Inactivation and disassembly of the pyruvate dehydrogenase multienzyme complex from bovine kidney by limited proteolysis with an enzyme from rat liver.

Mammalian pyruvate dehydrogenase multienzyme complex is inactivated when treated with a leupeptin-sensitive enzyme (termed 'inactivase') obtained from rat liver lysosomes. However, the inactivation of the overall reaction does not affect any of the component activities of the enzyme complex. By several methods it is demonstrated that treatment with the inactivase provokes the disassembly of the complex into its constituent enzyme components which, though being enzymatically active when assayed separately, are unable to catalyze the coordinated reaction sequence of pyruvate oxidation. The dissociation occurs as a consequence of limited proteolysis of the lipoate acetyltransferase core of the multienzyme complex. Isolated nicked acetyltransferase retains its complete enzymatic activity and behaves as a high-molecular-weight aggregate. The lipoamide dehydrogenase and pyruvate dehydrogenase components, however, are not cleaved by the inactivase.

Reaction of yeast fatty acid synthetase with iodoacetamide. 3. Malonyl-coenzyme A decarboxylase as product of the reaction of fatty acid synthetase with iodoacetamide.

Yeast fatty acid synthetase possesses very low malonyl-CoA decarboxylase activity. Treatment with iodoacetamide, while abolishing synthetase activity, induces a strong malonyl decarboxylase activity which, in turn, can be inhibited by N-ethylmaleimide. Kinetic analysis shows that the emergence of the decarboxylase activity is synchronized to the disappearance of the fatty-acid-synthesizing activity and thus, is due to carboxamidomethylation of the peripheral SH-groups of the multienzyme complex. Strong decarboxylase activity was also found after treatment of the synthetase with methylmalonyl-CoA. A hypothetical scheme is proposed which explains the origination of the decarboxylase activity as a consequence of conformational changes of the condensing enzyme component which happen when the peripheral SH-group is acylated or alkylated.