Although oxidation of methionine and tryptophan are known as popular chemical modifications that occur in monoclonal antibody (mAb) molecules, oxidation of other amino acids in mAbs has not been reported to date. In this study, oxidation of the histidine residue in a human immunoglobulin gamma (IgG) 1 molecule was discovered for the first time by mass spectrometry. The oxidation of a specific histidine located at the CH2 domain of IgG1 occurred under light stress, but it was not observed under heat stress. With the forced degradation study using several reactive oxygen species, the singlet oxygen was attributed to a reactive source of the histidine oxidation. The reaction mechanism of the histidine oxidation was proposed on the basis of the mass spectrometric analysis of IgG1 oxidized in deuterium oxide and hydrogen heavy oxide.

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Though OmpT has been reported to mainly cleave the peptide bond between consecutive basic amino acids, we identified more precise substrate specificity by using a series of modified substrates, termed PRX fusion proteins, consisting of 184 residues. The cleavage site of the substrate PRR was Arg140-Arg141 and the modified substrates PRX substituted all 19 natural amino acids at the P1' site instead of Arg141. OmpT under denaturing conditions (in the presence of 4 M urea) cleaved not only between two consecutive basic amino acids but also at the carboxyl side of Arg140 except for the Arg140-Asp141, -Glu141, and -Pro141 pairs. In addition to Arg140 at the P1 site, similar results were obtained when Lys140 was substituted into the P1 site. In the absence of urea, an aspartic acid residue at the P1' site was unfavorable for OmpT cleavage of synthetic decapeptides, the enzyme showed a preference for a dibasic site.

The Escherichia coli outer-membrane endoprotease OmpT mainly cleaves peptide bonds between consecutive basic amino acids. The effect of adjacent residues on cleavage efficiency is currently unknown, except at positions P2 and P2'. Therefore we investigated the effects of amino acid residues upstream of the cleavage site on the ability of OmpT to cleave efficiently a fusion protein carrying human glucagon-like peptide-1 (7-37) in 4 M urea. The P1-P10 residues were replaced by Ala and each substrate was subjected to OmpT digestion. The replacement of Arg residue at P1 blocked the cleavage due to the loss of the cleavage site, and the replacement of Arg residue at P4 maximally reduced the cleavage rate. Conversely, cleavage efficiency increased on replacing Glu at P6. Substitution of the residues at P4 and P6 with several different amino acids showed that OmpT preferred basic residues at these positions, whereas acidic residues had a negative effect. This was also shown to be true with synthetic decapeptide substrates in the absence of urea. The k(cat)/ K(m) ratio increased with basic residues at P4 or P6, mainly due to a lower K(m) rather than an increase in k(cat). On the basis of these findings, we prepared a fusion protein carrying human atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), a drug for acute congestive heart failure. OmpT released mature ANP from the E. coli-expressed fusion protein. As expected, the introduction of an Arg residue at P4 and P6 enhanced the release of ANP.

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