BacS and Bac7, antibiotics of the bactenecin (proline/arginine-rich peptide) family, are stored as proforms in the large granules of bovine neutrophils [Zanetti, M., Litteri, L., Gennaro, R., Horstmann, H. and Romeo, D. (1990) J. Cell Bid. I l l , 1363-13711. These proforms have been purified to homogeneity from granule extracts by immunoaffinity and reverse-phase chromatography. While mature bactenecins efficiently kill Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella typhimurium with minimal inhibitory concentrations of 6- 12 pg/ml, proBac5 and proBac7 do not affect the growth of the same microorganisms, even at 500 pg/ml. Previous investigations have suggested that the conversion of probactenecins into mature antimicrobial peptides is catalyzed by a neutral serine protease stored in the azurophil granules. Purified proBac5 and proBac7 were thus treated with elastase, cathepsin G or proteinase 3, which constitute the pool of neutral serine proteases of the azurophils, and the reaction products were identified by Western blot analysis, mass spectrometry, and N-terminal sequence analysis. Of the three proteases, only elastase is able to catalyze the stepwise cleavage of probactenecins into the corresponding mature fieptides, which have the same mass, N-terminal sequence and antibiotic activity of authentic BacS and Bac7. These results point to the importance of cooperation between azurophils and large granules in mounting a defense reaction.

Proteolytic cleavage by neutrophil elastase converts inactive storage proforms to antibacterial bactenecins.

SCOCCHI, MARCO;SKERLAVAJ, BARBARA;GENNARO, RENATO
1992-01-01

Abstract

BacS and Bac7, antibiotics of the bactenecin (proline/arginine-rich peptide) family, are stored as proforms in the large granules of bovine neutrophils [Zanetti, M., Litteri, L., Gennaro, R., Horstmann, H. and Romeo, D. (1990) J. Cell Bid. I l l , 1363-13711. These proforms have been purified to homogeneity from granule extracts by immunoaffinity and reverse-phase chromatography. While mature bactenecins efficiently kill Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella typhimurium with minimal inhibitory concentrations of 6- 12 pg/ml, proBac5 and proBac7 do not affect the growth of the same microorganisms, even at 500 pg/ml. Previous investigations have suggested that the conversion of probactenecins into mature antimicrobial peptides is catalyzed by a neutral serine protease stored in the azurophil granules. Purified proBac5 and proBac7 were thus treated with elastase, cathepsin G or proteinase 3, which constitute the pool of neutral serine proteases of the azurophils, and the reaction products were identified by Western blot analysis, mass spectrometry, and N-terminal sequence analysis. Of the three proteases, only elastase is able to catalyze the stepwise cleavage of probactenecins into the corresponding mature fieptides, which have the same mass, N-terminal sequence and antibiotic activity of authentic BacS and Bac7. These results point to the importance of cooperation between azurophils and large granules in mounting a defense reaction.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11368/1694875
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