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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

The Importance of Correct Protein Concentration for Kinetics and Affinity Determination in Structure-function Analysis
Published on: March 18, 2010
Kinetic analysis of a simplified scheme of autocatalytic zymogen activation
1National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Academia Sinica, Beijing, China.
Abstract:
Proteolytic enzymes are usually biosynthesized as somewhat larger inactive precursors known as zymogens. These zymogens must undergo an activation process, usually a limited proteolysis, to attain their catalytic activity. When the activating enzyme and the activated enzyme coincide, the process is an autocatalytic zymogen activation. In the present study, a kinetic analysis of the entire progress curve for the autocatalytic zymogen activation reactions is presented. On the basis of the kinetic equations, a novel procedure is developed to evaluate the kinetic parameters of the reactions. This procedure is particularly useful for the fast zymogen autoactivation reactions. As two examples, the novel procedure is used to analyse the autocatalytic activation of bovine trypsinogen and human blood coagulation factor XII (Hageman factor).
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