Studies on natural and modified peptide Trichosanthes trypsin inhibitors

A peptide trypsin inhibitor was isolated and purified from the roots of Trichosanthes kirilowii (a Chinese medical herb) by using immobilized anhydro-trypsin affinity chromatography and HPLC C18 column reverse chromatography. It contains two major components, both consisting of 27 amino acid residues with three pairs of disulfide bonds. The sequence determination indicated that the difference between them is only in the ninth position, being Gln and Lys, respectively. The peptide bond of the inhibitor reactive site Arg-Ile (3-4) is easy to cleave at low pH by trypsin, resulting in a modified inhibitor. It might be the smallest naturally occurring protein inhibitor so far known. The modification reaction of the Trichosanthes inhibitor with trypsin is similar to the catalytic enzyme-substrate reaction. The dissociation constant of the modified inhibitor with trypsin is around fourfold that of the natural inhibitor.