Several microbial pathogens augment their invasive potential by binding and activating human plasminogen to generate the proteolytic enzyme plasmin. Yeast cells and cell wall proteins (CWP) of the human pathogenic fungus Candida albicans bound plasminogen with a K(d) of 70 +/- 11 nM and 112 +/- 20 nM respectively. Bound plasminogen could be activated to plasmin by mammalian plasminogen activators; no C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF