Synthetic peptide substrates for the immunoglobulin A1 protease from Neisseria gonorrhoeae (type 2)

Neisseria gonorrhoeae secretes protease which inactive human immunoglobulin A1 (IgA1) by cleavage of specific peptide bonds in the hinge region. The type 2 IgA1 protease (EC 3.4.24.13) is secreted as a 169-kDa precursor which undergoes autoproteolysis at three sites (A, B, and C) to release the 106-kDa active form of the enzyme (J. Pohlner, R. Halter, K. Beyreuther, and T. F. Meyer. Nature [London] 325:458-462, 1987). Synthetic decapeptides consisting of five residues on each side of the three autoproteolytic cleavage sites and their potential pentapeptide catabolites were prepared by solid-phase synthesis. Cleavage of the decapeptides by the type 2 IgA1 protease from N. gonorrhoeae was monitored by high-performance liquid chromatography. Peptides homologous with the amino acid sequences around the B and C sites are cleaved by the IgA1 protease. Amino acid analysis and Edman degradation show that the cleavage products have both the composition and amino acid sequence which would be expected from cleavage at the predicted sites. Km values of 1.35 mM and 3.43 mM and kcat values of 280 pmol/h/U and 439 pmol/h/U for the site B and site C peptides, respectively, were determined. The catalytic efficiency (kcat/Km) for the synthetic substrates is about 10% of that reported for intact IgA1. Cleavage of the peptides is inhibited by IgA1 protease inhibitors such as the tetrapeptide substrate analog inhibitor HRP-48, human colostrum, and a peptide-boronate transition state inhibitor. An extract from an N. gonorrhoeae construct lacking active IgA1 protease failed to cleave the synthetic substrate, while an extract from the control construct which secretes active enzyme completely hydrolyzed the synthetic peptide. Neither the site A peptide nor synthetic decapeptides encompassing cleavage sites in the hinge region of IgA1 are hydrolyzed by IgA1 protease. These are the first synthetic substrates to be reported for any IgA1 protease.