1. Department of Diagnostic Immunology Research and Biochemistry, Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, New York 14263 USA;2. Cetus Corporation, Emeryville, California 94608 USA
Abstract:
Human prostate-specific antigen has been found to exhibit a mild activity of protease at neutral pH. This finding is based on two observations: a proteolytic activity was always associated with the antigen fractions during purification, and the proteolytic activity and the antigen were precipitated with specific antibody to the antigen. In comparison with physico-chemical and catalytic properties of known proteases, human prostate-specific antigen is a distinct neutral protease.