A novel fibrinolytic enzyme (nattokinase) in the vegetable cheese Natto; a typical and popular soybean food in the Japanese diet

Abstract

A strong fibrinolytic activity was demonstrated in the vegetable cheese Natto, which is a typical soybean food eaten in Japan. The average activity was calculated at about 40 CU (plasmin units)/g wet weight. This novel fibrinolytic enzyme, named nattokinase, was easily extracted with saline. The mol. wt and pI were about 20,000 and 8.6, respectively. Nattokinase not only digested fibrin but also the plasmin substrate H-D-Val-Leu-Lys-pNA (S-2251), which was more sensitive to the enzyme than other substrates tried. Diisopropyl fluorophosphate and 2,2,2-trichloro-1-hydroxyethyl-o,o-dimethylphosphate strongly inhibited this fibrinolytic enzyme.

Purification and characterization of a fibrinolytic enzyme of Bacillus subtilis DC33, isolated from Chinese traditional Douchi

“…Many fibrinolytic enzymes were found from Asian traditional fermented foods, such as Japanese Natto [4,[13][14][15][16], Tofuyo [34], Korean Chungkook-Jang soy sauce [5], edible honey mushroom [35], Chinese DouChi and Sufu [17,22], as well as fermented shrimp paste [1]. DouChi is a typical and popular flavor-rich fermented soybean food in China and has a history dating back to more than 2,000 years.…”

“…Their major functions have been described as plasminogen activators or plasmin-like proteases, e.g., lumbrokinase (EC 3.4.17.13) [7], which can directly degrade fibrin or fibrinogen, thereby dissolving thrombi rapidly and completely. Nattokinase, which was purified from natto, a traditional Japanese fermented food, not only directly lyses thrombi in vivo [13][14][15], but can also enhance fibrinolytic activity in plasma and increase the amount of t-PA by oral administration [4,14,16].…”

Fibrin(ogen)olytic and antiplatelet activities of a subtilisin-like protease from Solanum tuberosum (StSBTc-3)

“…According to their action mechanism, thrombolytic agents are classified in two types: one is plasminogen activator, such as tissue type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and urokinase; the other is the plasmin-like protein, e.g. nattokinase [7] and lumbrokinase [8] which can directly degrade the fibrin of blood clots, thereby dissolving the thrombi rapidly and completely [9]. However, these enzymes are expensive and patients may suffer from undesirable side effects such as gastrointestinal bleeding, allergic reaction, and resistance to repercussion [10,11].…”

Purification and characterization of a novel thermoacid-stable fibrinolytic enzyme from Staphylococcus sp. strain AJ isolated from Korean salt-fermented Anchovy-joet

“…The major thrombolytic agents are classiWed into two types. The plasminogen activators, such as urokinase, tPA (tissue type plasminogen activator), and streptokinase, which activate plasminogen to plasmin, and the plasminlike proteins, such as nattokinase [3] and lumbrokinase [4], which can directly degrade the Wbrin.…”

“…Many bacterial Wbrinolytic enzymes were discovered from fermented foods, such as natto [3,[5][6][7], shiokara [8] in Japanese food, Chungkook-Jang [1], Doen-Jang [2], and Jeot-Gal [9] in Korean food, douchi [10] in Chinese food, and Tempeh [11] in Indonesian food. Of them Shiokara (Japan) and Jeot-Gal (Korea) are Wsh-fermented foods, which are used as important additive for improving the taste of other foods as well as being foods themselves [12].…”