title: Peptide mimics of the Bowman-Birk inhibitor reactive site loop.
abstract: Bowman-Birk Inhibitors (BBIs) are small highly cross-linked proteins that typically display an almost symmetrical "double-headed" structure. Each "head" contains an independent proteinase binding domain. The realization that one BBI molecule could form a 1:1:1 complex with two enzymes led early workers to dissect this activity. Now, after three decades of research, it has been possible to isolate the antiproteinase activity as small ( approximately 11 residues), cyclic, synthetic peptides, which display most of the functional aspects of the protein. More recently, it has been found that these peptide fragments are not just a synthetic curiosity-a natural 14-residue cyclic peptide (SFTI-1), which too encapsulates the BBI inhibitory motif, is found to occur in sunflowers. This article reviews the properties of BBI-based peptides (including SFTI-1) and discusses the features that are important for inhibitory activity.
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D020650:Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques / Q000379:methods; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D011487:Protein Conformation; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D014357:Trypsin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D014358:Trypsin Inhibitor, Bowman-Birk Soybean / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D009842:Oligopeptides; D014358:Trypsin Inhibitor, Bowman-Birk Soybean; D014357:Trypsin