No abstract

We synthesized the following four new peptide substrates, Suc-Phe-Leu-pNA, Suc-Phe-Leu-NMec, Suc-Phe-Leu-ONPh, and Pht-Phe-Leu-pNA, and we applied the proton inventory method to their hydrolysis by papain. Useful relationships between the rate constants of the catalytic reaction have been established and contributed to the elucidation of the hydrolytic mechanism of papain. For all amide substrates, the parameter K(S) and the rate constants k(1), k(-)(1), and k(2) were estimated. Moreover, it was found that k(cat)/K(m) = k(1) for all four substrates, while two exchangeable hydrogenic sites, one in the ground state and another in the transition state, generate an inverse isotope effect during the reaction governed by this parameter. The proton inventories of both k(2) and k(3) are essentially linear, whatever the acyl moiety and/or the leaving group of the substrate. The proton inventories of K(S) are also essentially linear for all amide substrates, while the observed large isotope effect of about 3 to 9 originates from a single hydrogenic site in the product state. This latter, in agreement to both the small transition state fractionation factors found for k(cat)/K(m) (or k(1)) and the unit ground-state fractionation factors found for k(2), argues for the formation of a tetrahedral adduct during the reaction governed by the k(1) parameter. Furthermore, papain acts as a one-proton catalyst during acylation or deacylation, both of which proceed through similar concerted reaction pathways, where a nucleophilic attack is accompanied by the movement of one proton.

No abstract

No abstract

This article reports a first contribution for the elucidation of catalytic mechanism of Lipase from porcine pancreas, type VI-s (PPL), in hydrolyzing an ester substrate in aqueous media. The conclusions were based on the pH-profiles of Michaelis-Menten parameters k cat/Km, k cat and Km, as well as on the absolute temperature profile of k cat/Km, obtained during the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl laurate by PPL. It was found that (a) PPL performs catalysis by means of ion pairs formed either as Ser152-Ο-/His263-Im+H and/or Carbonyl-Ο-/His263-Im+H, (b) the parameter k cat/Km equals to k1 and thus ES is formed and destroyed in the course of a series of consecutive reactions governed by the dynamic constant K S = k2/k1, and (c) the hydrolysis of substrate is assisted by a hydrogen bond developed between deprotonated Asp176 and the positively charged imidazole of His263 across a pKa-value 3.85, necessary for efficient catalysis