Functional study of the germinal angiotensin I-converting enzyme promoter.

Polymerase chain amplification experiments indicate that the germinal specific promoter of the angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) is completely extinguished in somatic tissues. Despite this very strict specificity of expression, the germinal ACE promoter is active in transient transfection experiments in two somatic cell lines and one cell line of germinal origin. The analysis of the promoter shows the existence two regulatory elements within the first 350 bp: a proximal positive element and a distal negative element.     

A continuous fluorescence resonance energy transfer angiotensin I-converting enzyme assay

Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) is involved in various physiological and physiopathological conditions; therefore, the measurement of its catalytic activity may provide essential clinical information. This protocol describes a sensitive and rapid procedure for determination of ACE activity using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) substrates containing o-aminobenzoic acid (Abz) as the fluorescent group and 2,4-dinitrophenyl (Dnp) as the quencher acceptor. Hydrolysis of a peptide bond between the donor/acceptor pair generates fluorescence that can be detected continuously, allowing quantitative measurement of the enzyme activity. The FRET substrates provide a useful tool for kinetic studies and for ACE determination in biological fluids and crude tissue extracts. An important benefit of this method is the use of substrates selective for the two active sites of the enzyme, namely Abz-SDK(Dnp)P-OH for N-domain, Abz-LFK(Dnp)-OH for C-domain and Abz-FRK(Dnp)P-OH for somatic ACE. This methodology can be adapted for determinations using a 96-well fluorescence plate reader.     

Alchemilla viridiflora Rothm.: the potent natural inhibitor of angiotensin I-converting enzyme

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry - Alchemilla viridiflora Rothm., Rosaceae is a herbaceous plant widespread in central Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Serbia with Kosovo. Liquid...     

Effects of angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitor, SQ 14225, in nomal men.

Effects of an orally active angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitor, SQ 14225, on the actions of angiotensin I (AI) infused intravenously for 120 to 390 min were studied in 5 normal men. When 20 ng/kg/min of AI infusion was started immediately after a single oral administration of 100 mg of SQ 14225, a significant rise in blood pressure (BP) was observed for the first 15 min, but BP began to fall from 17 min and returned to the pretreatment level at 45 min. This BP level continued at least to 120 min and in one subject to 180 min. In this subject BP began to rise again from 185 min and reached the level of 15 min at 390 min. Plasma AI level increased gradually from 45 min. At 15 min plasma renin activity (PRA) decreased and plasma aldosterone (PA) increased, but then PRA began to increase and PA began to decrease. At 120 min the values of PRA and PA were similar to the pretreatment values. In one subject plasma AI and PRA began to decrease and PA began to increase after 120 or 180 min. On the other hand, in the 5 men sole AI infusion caused a continued BP rise, PRA decrease and PA increase, and sole SQ 14225 administration caused increases in plasma AI and PRA and a decrease in PA but no BP change. From these results it was concluded that complete blockade and partial inhibition of AI conversion by 100 mg of oral SQ 14225 lasted for about 2.5 and 6.5 hr, respectively and that BP rise, PRA suppression and aldosterone stimulation after AI infusion were entirely due to the actions of angiotensin II converted from AI.     

Synthesis and molecular modeling of a lisinopril-tryptophan analogue inhibitor of angiotensin I-converting enzyme

With a view to developing a more C-domain-selective angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitor, a novel analogue of lisinopril has been synthesized which incorporates a bulky P(2)(') tryptophan functionality. This inhibitor demonstrated a significantly increased specificity for the C-domain as compared with lisinopril. Molecular docking revealed hydrophobic and hydrogen-bonding interactions with residues of the C-domain S(2)(') subsite.     

Human angiotensin I-converting enzyme gene and endurance performance.

Human physical performance is strongly influenced by genetic factors. A variation in the structure of the human angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) gene has been reported in which the insertion (I) variant is associated with lower ACE levels than the deletion (D) gene. We have previously reported that the I variant was associated with improved endurance performance in high-altitude mountaineers and British Army recruits. We now examine this genotype distribution in 91 British Olympic-standard runners (79 Caucasians). DNA was extracted from the buccal cells contained in 10 ml of saline mouthwash donated by the subjects, and the I and D variants of the ACE gene were identified by PCR amplification of the polymorphic region. There was an increasing frequency of the I allele with distance run [0.35, 0.53, and 0.62 for /=5,000 m (n = 34), respectively; P = 0.009 for linear trend]. Among 404 Olympic-standard athletes from 19 other mixed sporting disciplines (in which endurance performance was not necessarily a key factor), the I allele did not differ significantly from that found in control subjects: 0.50 vs. 0.49 (P = 0.526). These results support a positive association of the I allele with elite endurance performance.     

Purification of angiotensin I-converting enzyme from human lung.

Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (peptidyl dipeptide hydrolase, EC 3.4.15.1) was solubilized from the membrane fraction of human lung using trypsin treatment and purfied using columns of DE 52-cellulose, hydroxyapatite and Sephadex G-200. The purified enzyme was shown to convert angiotensin I to angiotensin II and also to inactivate bradykinin. The specific activity of the enzyme was 9.5 units/mg protein for Hippuryl-His-Leu-OH and 0.665 mumol/min per mg protein for angiotensin I. The enzymic activity obtained after trypsin treatment (1 mg/200 mg protein) for 2 h could be divided into three components: (i) an enzyme of molecular weight 290 000 (peak I), (ii) an enzyme of molecular weight 180 000 (peak II) and (iii) an enzyme of molecular weight 98 000 (peak III), by columns of DE 52-cellulose and Sephadex G-200. Km values of peak I, II and III fraction for Hippuryl-His-Leu-OH were identical at 1.1 mM. pH optimum of the enzyme was 8.3 for Hippuryl-His-Leu-OH.     

An enzyme kinetics and 19F nuclear magnetic resonance study of selectively trifluoroacetylated cytochrome c derivatives.

The reaction of cytochrome c with ethyl thioltrifluoroacetate was carried out under conditions which led to the selective trifluoroacetylation of a small number of the 19 lysines. The mixture of derivatives was separated by ion-exchange chromatography and four different derivatives with well-resolved 19F nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra were obtained. Peptide mapping techniques indicated that one of these derivatives contained a single trifluoroacetyl group at lysine 22, and another derivative was singly labeled at lysine 25. The trifluoroacetylated lysine 22 derivative was fully active toward both succinate-cytochrome c reductase (EC 1.3.99.1) and cytochrome oxidase (EC 1.9.3.1) white the trifluoroacetylated lysine 25 derivative was fully active toward the reductase, but had a threefold greater Michaelis constant in the cytochrome oxidase reactin. This supports the hypothesis that the cytochrome oxidase binding site is located in the heme cervice region, and that Lys-25 is important in the binding. 19FNMR spectra of the cytochrome c derivatives bound to phospholipid vesicles were obtained. The reasonably narrow line widths (35-65 Hz) and good sensitivity of the trifluoroacetyl resonances indicated that they might be useful probes for the interaction of cytochrome c with intact mitochondria.     

Testicular angiotensin I-converting enzyme (E.C. 3.4.15.1)

In the two mammalian species (i.e., rabbit and rat) in which it has been studied to date, testicular angiotensin I-converting enzyme possesses distinct physicochemical and immunological properties, and a susceptibility to hormonal regulation that makes it a unique isozyme of the converting enzyme ordinarily distributed throughout the body. The testicular isozyme appears to be a lower molecular weight version of the pulmonary enzyme, with similar, although not identical, catalytic properties. The testicular isozyme is under androgenic control and is associated with germinal cells. Although its function has yet to be elaborated, the testicular isozyme provides an excellent model for the study of tissue-specific regulation of carboxypeptidases.     

Tissue angiotensin I-converting enzyme activity in spontaneously hypertensive hamsters.

The purpose of this study was to measure angiotensin I-converting activity in heart, kidney, lung and cheek pouch tissue homogenates of spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive hamsters. We also determined inhibitor sensitivity and the effects of chloride anion concentration on kidney angiotensin I-converting activity in these animals. We found no significant differences in angiotensin I-converting activity between hypertensive and normotensive hamsters in all tissues tested. Inhibitor sensitivity of kidney angiotensin I-converting activity with captopril and lisonopril was similar in both groups. Finally, kidney angiotensin I-converting activity increased significantly in both groups as chloride anion concentration in the assay buffer increased. Substituting chloride anion for citrate abrogated the increase in angiotensin I-converting enzyme activity.     

Latent production of angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitors from buckwheat protein.

The latent production of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) Inhibitors from tartary buckwheat (BW) was investigated, and the peptides responsible for ACE inhibition characterized. Intact buckwheat was found to exhibit ACE inhibitory activity having an IC50 value of 3.0 mg/ml. The activity of the protein fraction (IC50: 0.36 mg protein/ml) was not enhanced by pepsin treatment. Pepsin, followed by chymotrypsin and trypsin hydrolysis, resulted in a significant increase in the ACE inhibitory activity (IC50: 0.14 mg protein/ml). The rutin contained in the buckwheat did not exhibit any ACE inhibition. A single oral administration of BW digest lowered the systolic blood pressure of a spontaneously hypertensive rat. Thus, BW proteins offer a potential resource for producing ACE inhibitory peptides during the digestion process. From the di-/tri-peptide fraction (DTPF) of the BW digest, inhibitory peptides were identified. The magnitude (%) of the total ACE inhibitory contribution of each identified peptide, relative to the overall inhibition of the DTPF, was about 41%.     

Cis-trans isomerization and puckering of proline residue

We report here the results on N-acetyl-L-proline-N'-methylamide (Ac-Pro-NHMe) calculated at the HF/6-31+G(d) level with the conductor-like polarizable continuum model (CPCM) of self-consistent reaction field methods to investigate the changes of backbone and prolyl ring along the cis-trans isomerization of the prolyl peptide bond. From the potential energy surface, the barrier to ring flip from the down-puckered conformation to the up-puckered one is estimated to be 2.5 and 3.2 kcal/mol for trans and cis conformers of Ac-Pro-NHMe, respectively. In particular, the ring flip seems to be inaccessible in the intermediate regions between trans and cis conformations, because of higher barriers (approximately 13-19 kcal/mol) to rotation of the prolyl peptide bond. The torsion angles for backbone and prolyl ring vary largely around the transition states at omega' approximately 120 degrees and -70 degrees for the prolyl peptide bond. Three kinds of puckering amplitudes show the same trend of puckering along the cis-trans isomerization although their absolute values are different. In particular, trans and cis conformations have the almost same degree of puckering. The cis populations and barriers to rotation of the prolyl peptide bond for Ac-Pro-NHMe are increased with the increase of solvent polarity, which is mainly ascribed to the decreases of relative free energies for cis conformations and the increase of relative free energies for transition states.     

Determination of angiotensin I-converting enzyme activity in cell culture using fluorescence resonance energy transfer peptides

An assay using fluorescence resonance energy transfer peptides was developed to assess angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) activity directly on the membrane of transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO) stably expressing the full-length somatic form of the enzyme. The advantage of the new method is the possibility of using selective substrates for the two active sites of the enzyme, namely Abz-FRK(Dnp)P-OH for somatic ACE, Abz-SDK(Dnp)P-OH for the N domain, and Abz-LFK(Dnp)-OH for the C domain. Hydrolysis of a peptide bond between the donor/acceptor pair (Abz/Dnp) generates detectable fluorescence, allowing quantitative measurement of the enzymatic activity. The kinetic parameter K(m) for the hydrolysis of the three substrates by ACE in this system was also determined and the values are comparable to those obtained using the purified enzyme in solution. The specificity of the activity was demonstrated by the complete inhibition of the hydrolysis by the ACE inhibitor lisinopril. Therefore, the results presented in this work show for the first time that determination of ACE activity directly on the surface of intact CHO cells is feasible and that the method is reliable and sensitive. In conclusion, we describe a methodology that may represent a new tool for the assessment of ACE activity which will open the possibility to study protein interactions in cells in culture.     

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance study of cobrotoxin.

Cobrotoxin (Mr 6949), which binds tightly to the acetylcholine receptors, contains no phenylalanines and only two histidines, two tyrosines, and one tryptophan that result in well-resolved aromatic proton resonances in D2O at 360 MHz. His-32, Tyr-25, and the Trp are essential for toxicity and may interact with the acetylcholine receptor. We assign two titratable resonances (pKa = 5.1) at delta = 9.0 and 7.5 ppm at pH 2.5 and at 7.7 and 7.1 ppm at pH 9.5 to the C-2 and C-4 ring protons, respectively, of His-4. Two other titratable resonances (pKa = 5.7) at delta = 8.8 and 6.9 ppm at pH 2.5 and at 7.8 and 6.7 ppm at pH 9.5 are assigned to the C-2 and C-4 ring protons of His-32, respectively. The differences in delta values of the two histidines reflect chemically different microenvironments while their low pKa values could arise from nearby positive charges. A methyl resonance gradually shifts upfield to delta approximately 0.4 ppm as His-4 is deprotonated and is tentatively assigned to the methyl group of Thr-14 or Thr-15 which, from published X-ray studies of neurotoxins, are located in the vicinity of His-4. Further, we have identified the aromatic resonances of the invariant tryptophan and individual tyrosines and the methyl resonance of one of the two isoleucines in the molecule. Several broad nontitrating resonances of labile protons which disappear at pH greater than 9 may arise from amide groups of the beta sheet in cobrotoxin.     

Purification and identification of an angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitory peptide from fermented soybean extract

Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE), a dipeptidyl carboxypeptidase, plays an important physiological role in regulating blood pressure. ACE-inhibitory peptides derived from food proteins have potential pharmaceutical and human health uses. In this study, we prepared a fermented soybean extract (FSE) through a rapid fermentation at an elevated temperature to accelerate proteolytic hydrolysis and described purification procedures to discover potent ACE-inhibitory peptides from FSE. After 3 days of aging, FSE exhibited ACE-inhibitory activity with an IC₅₀ value of 1.46 mg/mL. Purification of novel ACE-inhibitory peptides was carried out using ultrafiltration and consecutive chromatographic methods. A novel ACE-inhibitory peptide, with 66-fold increase in ACE-inhibitory activity compared to that of FSE, was isolated from FSE through a five-step purification procedure. The amino acid sequence of the purified ACE-inhibitory peptides was determined to be Leu-Val-Gln-Gly-Ser by Edman degradation method, and its IC₅₀ value was 22 μg/mL (43.7 μM).     

Inhibition and affinity chromatography of chicken lung angiotensin I-converting enzyme with captopril.

1. Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (EC 3.4.15.1) has been purified to electrophoretic homogeneity from chicken lung by using a facile two-step protocol which included affinity chromatography on Sepharose-bound captopril. 2. Captopril was a potent inhibitor of chicken lung angiotensin I-converting enzyme with Ki values of 2.0 nmol/l and 1.6 nmol/l for detergent-extracted and trypsin-extracted angiotensin I-converting enzymes, respectively. 3. Molecular weight comparison of trypsin-extracted (M(r)270,000) and detergent-extracted (M(r)690,000) angiotensin I-converting enzyme indicated that membrane-binding sequence contributed to a large extent to the enzyme molecule. 4. Kinetic properties of both forms of the enzyme suggested that the membrane-bound sequence contributed to an increase of the enzyme-substrate affinity.     

Affinity chromatography of angiotensin I-converting enzyme from rabbit lung using hippurylhistidylleucyl-OH.

Approximately 50-fold purification of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (Peptidyldipeptide hydrolase, EC 3.4.15.1) from rabbit lung was achieved by affinity chromatography using the synthetic substrate Hippuryl-His-Leu-OH. The specific activity of the enzyme was increased from 0.044 units/mg protein to 1.911 units/mg protein for Hippuryl-His-Leu-OH and from 0.33 nmol/min per mg protein to 13.8 nmol/min per mg protein for angiotensin I.     

Sequencing of an active-site peptide of angiotensin I-converting enzyme containing an essential glutamic acid residue

A glutamic acid residue at the active site of bovine lung angiotensin I-converting enzyme, a zinc-metallo peptidyl dipeptidase, was esterified with p-[N,N-bis(chloroethyl)amino]phenylbutyryl-L-[U-14C]proline (chlorambucyl-L-[U-14C]-L-proline), an affinity label for this enzyme (Harris, R.B., and Wilson, I.B. (1983) J. Biol. Chem. 258, 1357-1362). The radiolabeled enzyme was digested with BrCN and only 1 of the 30 cleavage peptides resolved by reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) contained the bound radiolabel. This active-site peptide (Mr = 16,000) was digested with trypsin and the labeled peptide formed (T-2) was further degraded with thermolysin. The thermolytic peptides were resolved by reverse-phase HPLC. Only 1 of the 5 peptides obtained (Th-1, Mr = 1290) contained the bound radiolabel. Th-1 (12 residues) was subjected to manual Edman degradation and the following partial sequence was determined: H2N-Phe-Thr-Glu-Leu-Ala-Asp-Ser-Glu... The radiolabel was released at cycle 3 and the amount recovered was equivalent to the amount of phenylthiohydantoin-Glu detected on HPLC. Thus, glutamic acid is esterified with chlorambucyl-L-[U-14C]proline in confirmation of our earlier findings. The sequence determined is homologous in 5 residues with the corresponding sequences of bovine carboxypeptidase A and B, two other mammalian zinc proteases. There is little sequence homology with thermolysin, a bacterial zinc protease that also contains an essential active-site glutamic acid residue.