title: Crystallographic studies of reduced bond inhibitors complexed with an aspartic proteinase.
abstract: To aid in the design of an effective inhibitor to human renin, it is essential to have a detailed knowledge of how this aspartic proteinase interacts with its substrate, angiotensinogen. Human renin shows a stringent specificity toward the Leu-Val bond in its natural substrate. The minimal length for an effective substrate has been characterised as an octapeptide sequence derived from the amino terminal portion of angiotensinogen (residues 6----13): His-Pro-Phe-His-Leu-Val-Ile-His (Leu-Val is the scissile bond). This suggests that renin has a fairly extensive active site cleft, as has been observed in homologous enzymes whose three-dimensional structures have been solved using x-ray diffraction methods. The homologous fungal aspartic proteinase, endothiapepsin, has been cocrystallised with human renin inhibitors of the type His-Pro-Phe-His-Leu-R-Val-Ile-His, where R indicates a reduced carbonyl analogue of the scissile peptide bond. The three-dimensional crystallographic structures of two complexes of endothiapepsin with an inhibitor have been solved. The details of inhibitor binding at the active site cleft of endothiapepsin are described. These data allow a rational approach to the design of novel renin inhibitors, through studies of these inhibitors in a three-dimensional model of human renin constructed in our laboratory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Crystallography, Birkbeck College, London, UK.
authors.forename: S I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Foundling
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: F E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Pearl
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hemmings
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Blundell
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hallett
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sueiras
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003461:Crystallography; D010450:Endopeptidases / Q000737:chemistry*; D006736:Horses; D006801:Humans; D011480:Protease Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D051381:Rats; D013045:Species Specificity; D013552:Swine; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D011480:Protease Inhibitors; D010450:Endopeptidases