Comparative evaluation of stable TAFIa variants: importance of alpha-helix 9 and beta-sheet 11 for TAFIa (in)stability.
BACKGROUND
Activated thrombin activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFIa) plays a pivotal role in fibrinolysis. TAFIa activity is regulated by a temperature-dependent instability. This instability has not only complicated the study of structure-function relationships of TAFIa but has also prevented the crystallization of TAFIa. Furthermore, the TAFIa instability has severely compromised the development of activity inhibiting monoclonal antibodies. Recently, we combined all known stabilizing mutations (i.e. S305C, T325I, T329I, H333Y and H335Q) resulting in a synergistic (one hundred and eightyfold) stabilization of TAFIa at 37 degrees C. All these residues are located in an amino acid region (AA297-335) consisting of alpha-helix 9 and beta-sheet 11.


OBJECTIVE
To provide a comparative evaluation of the characteristics of a panel of stable TAFIa mutants and an energy-minimized model of the most stable TAFI variant.


RESULTS
The catalytic efficiency for activation of TAFI by thrombin/thrombomodulin was higher for all TAFI mutants compared with TAFI-wild type (wt). Except for TAFI variants carrying T325I-T329I, S305C-T325I or S305C-T325I-T329I mutations, the catalytic efficiency for Hip-Arg hydrolysis by TAFIa was similar for the TAFI mutants compared with the wild type. All TAFIa variants were equally well inhibited by potato tuber carboxypeptidase inhibitor (PTCI) and showed a significantly increased antifibrinolytic potential in accordance with their increased stability. Based on the intrinsic fluorescence decay of TAFIa, two independent structural transitions were found to be associated with the loss of functional activity.


CONCLUSIONS
Using molecular dynamic calculations on both TAFI-wt and TAFI-S305C-T325I-T329I-H333Y-H335Q models, we were able to identify the molecular interactions that contribute to the increased stability of the mutants.
Ceresa
E
E
Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Biology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
De Maeyer
M
M
Jonckheer
A
A
Peeters
M
M
Engelborghs
Y
Y
Declerck
P J
PJ
Gils
A
A
D000818:Animals; D025901:Carboxypeptidase B2 / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D002268:Carboxypeptidases / Q000737:chemistry; D002384:Catalysis; D005342:Fibrinolysis; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D011480:Protease Inhibitors; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D011817:Rabbits; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013696:Temperature; D013917:Thrombin / Q000737:chemistry; D018180:Thrombomodulin / Q000737:chemistry
D010940:Plant Proteins; D011480:Protease Inhibitors; D018180:Thrombomodulin; D002268:Carboxypeptidases; D025901:Carboxypeptidase B2; D013917:Thrombin