Mapping of residues of fibrinogen cleaved by protease II of Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis IMV B-7465

Abstract

The limited proteolysis of macromolecules allows obtaining the fragments that preserve the structure and functional properties of the whole molecule and could be used in the study of proteins structure and function. Proteases targeted to fibrinogen and fibrin are of interest as the tool for obtaining of functionally active fragments of fibrin(ogen) and for the direct defibrination in vivo. That is why the aim of the present work was to study the proteolytic action of Protease II (PII) purified from Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis IMV B-7465 on fibrinogen. Hydrolysis products of fibrinogen by PII were analysed by SDS-PAGE under reducing conditions with further immunoprobing using the mouse monoclonal 1-5A (anti-Aα509-610) and ІІ-5С (anti-Aα20-78) antibodies. It was shown that PII cleaved preferentially the Aα-chain of fibrinogen splitting off the peptide with apparent molecular weight of 10 kDa that corresponded the C-terminal part of Aα-chain of fibrinogen molecule. MALDI-TOF analysis of hydrolysis of fibrinogen was performed using a Voyager-DE. Results analyzed by Data Explorer 4.0.0.0 allowed to detect the main peak occurring at mass/charge (M/Z) ratio of 11 441 Da. According to “Peptide Mass Calculator” this peptide corresponded to fragment Аα505-610 of fibrinogen molecule. The result showed that PII cleaves the peptide bond AαAsp-Thr-Ala504-Ser505. Thus, PII can be used for the obtaining of unique fragments of fibrinogen molecule. As far as αC-domain contains numerous sites of fibrin intermolecular interactions we can consider PII as a prospective agent for their study and for the defibrination.