L-Histidine β-naphthylamide

For Trypanosoma brucei arginine and lysine are essential amino acids and therefore have to be imported from the host. Heterologous expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants identified cationic amino acid transporters among members of the T. brucei AAAP (amino acid/auxin permease) family. TbAAT5-3 showed high affinity arginine uptake (Km 3.6 ± 0.4 μM) and high selectivity for L-arginine. L-arginine transport was reduced by a 10-times excess of L-arginine, homo-arginine, canavanine or arginine-β-naphthylamide, while lysine was inhibitory only at 100-times excess, and histidine or ornithine did not reduce arginine uptake rates significantly. TbAAT16-1 is a high affinity (Km 4.3 ± 0.5 μM) and highly selective L-lysine transporter and of the compounds tested, only L-lysine and thialysine were competing for L-lysine uptake. TbAAT5-3 and TbAAT16-1 are expressed in both procyclic and bloodstream form T. brucei and cMyc-tagged proteins indicate localization at the plasma membrane. RNAi-mediated down-regulation of TbAAT5 and TbAAT16 in bloodstream form trypanosomes resulted in growth arrest, demonstrating that TbAAT5-mediated arginine and TbAAT16-mediated lysine transport are essential for T. brucei. Growth of induced RNAi lines could partially be rescued by supplementing a surplus of arginine or lysine, respectively, while addition of both amino acids was less efficient. Single and double RNAi lines indicate that additional low affinity uptake systems for arginine and lysine are present in T. brucei.

This present study reports the ability of a range of derivatives of L-histidine, histamine and imidazole to act as inhibitors of sweet-almond beta-glucosidase, yeast alpha-glucosidase and Escherichia coli beta-galactosidase. The addition of a hydrophobic group to the basic imidazole nucleus greatly enhances binding to both the alpha- and beta-glucosidases. L-Histidine (beta-naphthylamide (Ki 17 microM) is a potent competitive inhibitor of sweet-almond beta-glucosidase as is omega-N-acetylhistamine (K1 35 microM), which inhibits the sweet-almond beta-glucosidase at least 700 times more strongly than either yeast alpha-glucosidase or Escherichia coli beta-galactosidase, and suggests potential for the development of selective reversible beta-glucosidase inhibitors. A range of hydrophobic omega-N-acylhistamines were synthesized and shown to be among the most potent inhibitors of sweet-almond beta-glucosidase reported to date.

A proline iminopeptidase was purified about 18,000-fold from apricot seeds (Prunus armeniaca LINN.) by a five-step procedure comprised of extraction from seeds, ammonium sulfate fractionation, DEAE-cellulose chromatography, CM-Sepharose chromatography, and rechromatography on CM-Sepharose. The purified enzyme had a molecular weight of 220,000 by gel filtration and 55,000 by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. This indicates that the native enzyme may be composed of four identical subunits. The isoelectric point was 6.2 as determined by gel electrofocusing. The pH optimum for L-proline beta-naphthylamide was between pH 7.5 and 8.0, and the enzyme was stable in the pH 6.5-to-8.0 region and up to 40 degrees C. The enzyme was specific for L-proline beta-naphthylamide among various amino acid beta-naphthylamides, and it also hydrolzyed L-prolylglycine and L-prolylglycylglycine. The enzyme was strongly inhibited by p-chloromercuribenzoate, 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid), N-ethylmaleimide, and heavy metal ions, but was not activated significantly by thiol compounds. Moreover, the enzyme was inactivated by diethyl pyrocarbonate, p-bromophenacyl bromide, and photooxidation, but was not affected by diisopropyl fluorophosphate, phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride, bestatin, puromycin, or metal chelating agents. No activation of the enzyme was observed on addition of metal ions. These results suggest that the enzyme is not classifiable as a metalloenzyme, and that cysteine and histidine residues may participate in the enzyme activity.