Synthesis and Structural/Functional Characterization of Selective M14 Metallocarboxypeptidase Inhibitors Based on Phosphinic Pseudopeptide Scaffold: Implications on the Design of Specific Optical Probes.

Metallocarboxypeptidases (MCPs) of the M14 family are Zn-dependent exoproteases present in almost every tissue or fluid in mammals. These enzymes perform a large variety of physiological functions and are involved in several pathologies, such as pancreatic diseases, inflammation, fibrinolysis, and cancer. Here, we describe the synthesis and functional/structural characterization of a series of reversible tight-binding phosphinic pseudopeptide inhibitors that show high specificity and potency toward these proteases.

Discovery of Mechanism-Based Inactivators for Human Pancreatic Carboxypeptidase A from a Focused Synthetic Library.

Metallocarboxypeptidases (MCPs) are involved in many biological processes such as fibrinolysis or inflammation, development, Alzheimer's disease, and various types of cancer. We describe the synthesis and kinetic characterization of a focused library of 22 thiirane- and oxirane-based potential mechanism-based inhibitors, which led to discovery of an inhibitor for the human pro-carboxypeptidase A1. Our structural analyses show that the thiirane-based small-molecule inhibitor penetrates the barrier of the pro-domain to bind within the active site.

Intensity fading MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and functional proteomics assignments to identify protease inhibitors in marine invertebrates.

Unlabelled: Proteases and their inhibitors have become molecules of increasing fundamental and applicative value. Here we report an integrated strategy to identify and analyze such inhibitors from Caribbean marine invertebrates extracts by a fast and sensitive functional proteomics-like approach. The strategy works in three steps: i) multiplexed enzymatic inhibition kinetic assays, ii) Intensity Fading MALDI-TOF MS to establish a link between inhibitory molecules and the related MALDI signal(s) detected in the extract(s), and iii) ISD-CID-T MS fragmentation on the parent MALDI signals selected in the previous step, enabling the partial or total top-down sequencing of the molecules.

Association between foldability and aggregation propensity in small disulfide-rich proteins.

Aims: Disulfide-rich domains (DRDs) are small proteins whose native structure is stabilized by the presence of covalent disulfide bonds. These domains are versatile and can perform a wide range of functions. Many of these domains readily unfold on disulfide bond reduction, suggesting that in the absence of covalent bonding they might display significant disorder.

Crystal structure of novel metallocarboxypeptidase inhibitor from marine mollusk Nerita versicolor in complex with human carboxypeptidase A4.

NvCI is a novel exogenous proteinaceous inhibitor of metallocarboxypeptidases from the marine snail Nerita versicolor. The complex between human carboxypeptidase A4 and NvCI has been crystallized and determined at 1.7 Å resolution.