Inhibition properties of free and conjugated leupeptin analogues.

Leupeptin is a naturally occurring inhibitor of various proteases, in particular serine proteases. Following its discovery, the inhibitory properties of several other peptidyl argininals have been studied. The specificity of leupeptin is most likely due to the Leu-Leu-Argininal sequence, and its C-terminal aldehyde group has been suggested to enhance the binding efficiency and to be essential for function.

Characterization of Serine Protease Inhibitor from Conjugated to Soluble Dextran and Particle Carriers.

A serine protease inhibitor was extracted from potato tubers. The inhibitor was conjugated to soluble, prefractionated dextran and titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles. Conjugation to dextran was achieved by periodate oxidation of the dextran, followed by Schiff base coupling to inhibitor amino groups, and finally reduction, whereas the conjugation to the oxide particles was carried out by aminosilanization and carbonyldiimidazole activation.

Light scattering determination of the stoichiometry for protease-potato serine protease inhibitor complexes.

The interaction between pancreatic proteases and a serine protease inhibitor purified from potato tubers was investigated by chromatography-coupled light scattering measurements. The molar mass distribution in the chromatogram was compared to theoretical values calculated for the different possible combinations of complexes and free components by three different approaches, namely section analyses of the chromatograms, full mass average determination and mass distribution analysis. This revealed that the inhibitor was able to bind trypsin in a 2:1 complex, whereas the data for chymotrypsin clearly showed a limitation to 1:1 complex regardless of the molar ratio in the injected samples.

Kinetic studies of serine protease inhibitors in simple and rapid 'active barrier' model systems - Diffusion through an inhibitor barrier.

A model based on gelatin for protease activity studies was designed. The model is also extended to study the efficiency of inhibitors in a separate protective layer covering the layer containing the target substrate. A good correlation between protease concentration and the size of erosion wells formed in a plain gelatin layer was observed.

A flow-through nanoporous alumina trypsin bioreactor for mass spectrometry peptide fingerprinting.

Unlabelled: Mass spectrometry-based proteomics benefits from efficient digestion of protein samples. In this study, trypsin was immobilized on nanoporous anodized alumina membranes to create an enzyme reactor suitable for peptide mass fingerprinting. The membranes were derivatized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and the amino groups were activated with carbonyldiimidazole to allow coupling of porcine trypsin via ε-amino groups.