Purificação, caracterização bioquímica e potencial quimiopreventivo de um novo inibidor de quimotripsina de sementes de Enterolobium contortisiliquum (Vell.) Morong

Abstract

Protease inhibitors are proteins with the intrinsic ability to inhibit catalytic activity of enzymes and are very common in plant seeds. Proteases play a major role in development of several diseases. The control of their activity by protease inhibitors have increased interest on these molecules as chemopreventive agents, specially for cancer. The anticarcinogenic effects of legume seeds present in human diet as well as those of underexploited plant species have been extensively investigated. This study aimed to purify, perform biochemical characterization and evaluate the in vitro chemopreventive potential of protease inhibitors from Enterolobium contortisiliquum seeds upon human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells. Two protease inhibitors were purified and named EcCI and EcTI. By means of N-terminal sequence analysis, EcCI was identified as a Kunitz type inhibitor. EcTI was identified, by means of peptide mass fingerprinting and N-terminal sequence analyses, as the same EcTI purified previously (NCBI Protein BLAST; access number: sp|P86451.1|ITRY_ENTCO). The molecular masses of the two inhibitors determined by means of SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry are, respectively, 18.5 kDa and 19,710.4 Da (EcCI); 20.2 kDa and 19,813.22 Da (EcTI). Both inhibitors consist of two polypeptide chains and have several isoforms with acidic pIs, ranging from 5 to 6. Towards chymotrypsin, EcCI is a non competitive inhibitor and shows ki of 8 x 10-8 M, while EcTI is a competitive inhibitor with ki of 48 x 10-8 M. Towards trypsin, EcTI shows non competitive inhibition and ki of 2.8 x 10-8 M. EcCI and EcTI show high (93%) and moderate (38%) chymotrypsin inhibition and EcTI was also able to strongly inhibit trypsin (100%). EcCI and EcTI showed high leukocyte elastase inhibition (85 and 75%), respectively, and inhibited pancreatic elastase weakly (about 10%). Neither of them was able to inhibit papain nor bromelain. Both inhibitors are functionally stable under wide temperature range (from 37 to 70 °C – EcCI; from 37 to 60 °C – EcTI), pH (from 2 to 12) and DTT concentration (from 1 to 10 mM – EcCI; from 1 to 100 mM – EcTI). Both EcCI and EcTI were able to inhibit HT29 colorectal adenocarcinoma cells with IC50 of 35.5 and 20.4 x 10-6 M, respectively. These results clearly indicate that these are molecules with interesting biotechnological features and very promising tools as chemopreventive agents.