title: Isolation and characterization of a highly specific serine endopeptidase from an oral strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis.
abstract: Infection by Staphylococcus epidermidis, an opportunistic pathogen, has become a major problem due to the increased use of implanted medical devices and the growing number of patients who are therapeutically or infectiously immunosuppressed. These infections appear to proceed via modulation of the coagulation and complement systems. In this communication we describe the purification and characterization of a novel extracellular proteinase from an oral strain of S. epidermidis that can degrade fibrinogen, complement protein C5, and several other proteins. This proteinase has a strong preference for cleavage after glutamic acid residues, but not after aspartic acid. The S. epidermidis enzyme may be a multifunctional protein which not only provides this organism with both the ability to evade the complement defense system and to dysregulate the coagulation cascade, but also supplies nutrients for its growth through the degradation of Glu-rich proteins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens 30602, USA.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Banbula
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oleksy
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Mayo
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Travis
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D003182:Complement C5 / Q000737:chemistry; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007633:Keratins / Q000737:chemistry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D011480:Protease Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D013212:Staphylococcus epidermidis / Q000201:enzymology*
chemical_list: D003182:Complement C5; D011480:Protease Inhibitors; D007633:Keratins; D005340:Fibrinogen; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases