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- *******************************************
- * Cysteine proteases inhibitors signature *
- *******************************************
-
- Inhibitors of cysteine proteases [1,2,3], which are found in the tissues and
- body fluids of animals, in the larva of the worm Onchocerca volvulus [4], as
- well as in plants, can be grouped into three distinct but related families:
-
- - Type 1 cystatins (or stefins), molecules of about 100 amino acid residues
- with neither disulfide bonds nor carbohydrate groups.
- - Type 2 cystatins, molecules of about 115 amino acid residues which contain
- one or two disulfide loops near their C-terminus.
- - Kininogens, which are multifunctional plasma glycoproteins. They are the
- precursor of the active peptide bradykinin and play a role in blood
- coagulation by helping to position optimally prekallikrein and factor XI
- next to factor XII. They are also inhibitors of cysteine proteases.
- Structurally, kininogens are made of three contiguous type-2 cystatin
- domains, followed by an additional domain (of variable length) which
- contains the sequence of bradykinin. The first of the three cystatin
- domains seems to have lost its inhibitory activity.
-
- In all these inhibitors, there is a conserved region of five residues which
- has been proposed to be important for the binding to the cysteine proteases.
- Our pattern starts one residue before this conserved region.
-
- -Consensus pattern: [GSTEQKRV]-Q-[LIVT]-[VAF]-[SAGQ]-G-x-[LIVMNK]-x(2)-
- [LIVMFY]-x-[LIVMFYA]-[DENQKRHSIV]
- -Sequences known to belong to this class detected by the pattern: ALL.
- -Other sequence(s) detected in SWISS-PROT: 7.
-
- -Note: this pattern is always twice in kininogens.
-
- -Expert(s) to contact by email: Turk B.
- turk@ijs.ac.mail.yu
-
- -Last update: June 1994 / Pattern and text revised.
-
- [ 1] Barrett A.J.
- Trends Biochem. Sci. 12:193-196(1987).
- [ 2] Rawlings N.D., Barrett A.J.
- J. Mol. Evol. 30:60-71(1990).
- [ 3] Turk V., Bode W.
- FEBS Lett. 285:213-219(1991).
- [ 4] Lustigman S., Brotman B., Huima T., Prince A.M.
- Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 45:65-76(1991).
-