Separation of the two domains of human mucus proteinase inhibitor: inhibitory activity is only located in the carboxy-terminal domain

Human mucus proteinase inhibitor is a two-domain protein which inactivates bovine trypsin and chymotrypsin, leukocyte elastase and cathepsin G. In order to localize the site(s) responsible for these inhibitory activities, the two domains were isolated after specific cleavage of the Asp49-Pro50 bond following mild acid treatment of the bronchial inhibitor. The carboxy-terminal domain was active against leukocyte elastase, trypsin and chymotrypsin whereas the amino-terminal domain, which contained a putative antitryptic active site, was devoid of activity. This implicates that, in the whole molecule, the inhibitory activity region is localized only in the carboxy-terminal domain.