title: Echistatin. A potent platelet aggregation inhibitor from the venom of the viper, Echis carinatus.
abstract: A 49-residue protein, echistatin, which inhibits platelet aggregation, was purified from the venom of the saw-scaled viper Echis carinatus. The purification procedure included gel filtration on Sephadex G-50, cation-exchange chromatography on Mono S, and C18 reverse-phase high pressure liquid chromatography. The purified protein was homogeneous as judged by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing, reverse-phase high pressure liquid chromatography, and NH2-terminal sequence analysis. Echistatin is a single-chain polypeptide with a molecular weight of 5400 and a native isoelectric point of 8.3. The most abundant amino acid, cysteine, accounts for 8 of the 49 residues in the protein. A 10-residue segment of echistatin shows 90% identity to a portion of the sequence of trigramin, a platelet aggregation inhibitor from the green tree viper Trimereserus gramineus (Huang, T.-F., Holt, J. C., Lukasiewicz, H., and Niewiarowski, S. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 16157-16163). Echistatin contains the sequence arginine-glycine-aspartic acid, which is common to proteins which bind to the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa complex. It also contains the sequence proline-arginine-asparagine-proline, which is found in the A alpha chain of human fibrinogen at position 267-270. The purified protein inhibits fibrinogen-dependent platelet aggregation initiated by ADP with an IC50 of 3 x 10(-8) M and also prevents aggregation initiated by thrombin, epinephrine, collagen, or platelet-activating factor. Reduction of echistatin abolished its inhibitory activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Chemistry, Merck, Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories, West Point, Pennsylvania 19486.
authors.forename: Z R
authors.initials: ZR
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Gould
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Polokoff
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D001681:Biological Assay; D001792:Blood Platelets / Q000378:metabolism; D002850:Chromatography, Gel / Q000379:methods; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods; D002852:Chromatography, Ion Exchange / Q000379:methods; D002918:Chymotrypsin; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008970:Molecular Weight; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000032:analysis; D010974:Platelet Aggregation / Q000187:drug effects*; D011817:Rabbits; D014757:Viper Venoms / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D014757:Viper Venoms; D005340:Fibrinogen; D002918:Chymotrypsin