Low molecular weight trypsin-plasmin inhibitors isolated from papain treated urinary trypsin inhibitor

Papain treatment of human urinary trypsin inhibitor (UTI67; mol. wt. 43,000 by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, specific activity 1,897 U/mg protein) produced four new protease inhibitors, which were highly purified by gel chromatography on Sephadex G-100 and isoelectric focusing. The purified inhibitors (UTI26, UTI9-I, UTI9-II, and UTI9-III) were shown to be homogeneous by polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis, and had apparent molecular weights of 26,000, 9,000, 9,000, and 9,800, respectively, by sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis. During enzymatic degradation of UTI67, the amino acid compositions changed to more basic, and the isoelectric point increased from pH 2.0 (UTI67) to pHs 4.4, 5.2, 6.6, and 8.3 (UTI26, UTI9-I, UTI9-II, UTI9-III), respectively. Both the parent and degraded inhibitors had anti-plasmin activity as well as antitrypsin and anti-chrymotrypsin activities. Much higher anti-plasmin/anti-trypsin and anti-plasmin/anti-chymotryspin activities were observed in the degraded inhibitors than in the parent UTI67. They competitively inhibited human plasmin with Ki values of 1.13 X 10(-7) - 2.12 X 10(-6) M (H-D-Val-Leu-Lys-pNA substrate). The reactions were very fast and the active site of the inhibitors of plasmin was thought to be different from that to trypsin or chymotrypsin.