title: Enzyme destruction by a protease contaminant in bacitracin.
abstract: Bacitracin, as purchased from biochemical supply companies, is a mixture of more than 30 different substances. The major antibiotic isoforms A and B account for about 60% of the mixture. A newly identified impurity in some, but not all, of the bacitracin lots is a powerful subtilisin-type protease capable of cleaving many proteins including protein disulfide isomerase (PDI), myosin, and a variety of artificial substrates Thus, it is important for investigators who use bacitracin as a protease or other enzyme inhibitor to determine if the bacitracin they are using is contaminated with a protease enzyme. If it is present, they may have to reinterpret their results and retest with an enzyme-free bacitracin reagent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, New Mexico 87801, USA. snezna@nmt.edu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rogelj
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Reiter
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kesner
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Essex
mesh_terms: D001414:Bacitracin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004340:Drug Contamination; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004798:Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000097:blood; D013381:Subtilisins / Q000032:analysis / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D004798:Enzymes; D001414:Bacitracin; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D013381:Subtilisins