Besides acting as an inhibitor, the propeptide of human cathepsin B exerts an important auxiliary function as a chaperone in promoting correct protein folding. To explore the ability of N-terminally truncated forms of procathepsin B to fold into enzymatically active proteins, we produced procathepsin B variants progressively lacking N-terminal structural elements in baculovirus-infected insect cells. N-terminal truncation of the propeptide by up to 22 amino acids did not impair the production of activable procathepsin B. Secreted forms lacking the first 20, 21, or 22 amino acids spontaneously generated mature cathepsin B through autocatalytic processing, demonstrating that the first ␣-helix (Asp 11 -Arg 20 ) is necessary for efficient inhibition of the enzyme by its propeptide. In contrast, proenzymes lacking the N-terminal part including the first -sheet (Trp 24 -Ala 26 ) of the propeptide or containing an amino acid mutation directly preceding this -sheet were no longer properly folded. This shows that interactions between Trp 24 of the propeptide and Tyr 183 , Tyr 188 , and Phe 180 of the mature enzyme are important for stabilization and essential for procathepsin B folding. Thus, proenzyme forms missing more than the N-terminal 22 amino acids of the propeptide (notably truncated cathepsin B produced by the mRNA splice variant lacking exons 2 and 3, resulting in a propeptide shortened by 34 amino acids) are devoid of proteolytic activity because they cannot fold correctly. Thus, any pathophysiological involvement of truncated cathepsin B must be ascribed to properties other than proteolysis.The cysteine peptidase family C1 (the papain family, merops.sanger.ac.uk) contains two groups of enzymes within subfamily C1A characterized by the length of their propeptides: cathepsin B-like and cathepsin L-like enzymes. They show very little sequence homology in their proregions, and in contrast to cathepsin L-like proenzymes, which have a propeptide of about 100 amino acids in length, the propeptide region of the cathepsin B-like proenzymes is about 60 amino acids long (1). Studies on cathepsins B, L, and S demonstrated that the propeptides or parts of them are effective inhibitors of their cognate enzymes (2-5). The three-dimensional structure of human procathepsin B shows that the propeptide (Arg 1p-Lys 62p, where p stands for propeptide) is jacketed around the catalytic domain of the enzyme in a C-shaped fold, positioned in the direction opposite to bound substrates, thereby shielding the active site (6). Two regions of rat procathepsin B were found to be particularly important for inhibition, the NTTWQ sequence spanning residues 21p-25p, and the CGTVL sequence (amino acids 42p-46p) (2).Besides their function as intramolecular inhibitors, propeptides of several peptidases have been shown to assist in folding. Early in vitro refolding experiments showed that deletions in the propeptide of human cathepsin L resulted in the loss of enzymatic activity due to the lack of refolding capacity of the mature enzyme (7). In ...