Chondroitin
Recombinant human procathepsin S is capable of autocatalytic processing at neutral pH in the presence of glycosaminoglycans.
Vasiljeva O, Dolinar M, Pungercar JR, Turk V, Turk B.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Cathepsin S is unique among mammalian cysteine cathepsins in being active and stable at neutral pH. We show that autocatalytic activation of procathepsin S at low pH is a bimolecular process that is considerably accelerated (approximately 20-fold) by glycosaminoglycans and polysaccharides such as dextran sulfate, chondroitin sulfates A and E, and dermatan sulfate through electrostatic interaction with the proenzyme. Procathepsin S is also shown to undergo autoactivation at neutral pH in the presence of dextran sulfate with t1/2 of approximately 20 min at pH 7.5. This novel property of procathepsin S may have implications in pathological conditions associated with the appearance of active cathepsins outside lysosomes.
PMID: 15710427 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


