Microbial capsular polysaccharides for many years provided a highly practical public health vaccines for preventing meningococcal, pneumococcal and Haemophilus influenza infection, and typhoid fever. Their application in the form of conjugates with protein carriers eliminate the gap in protection against these infections in children under one year. Extremely promising turned out offered us a new generation of vaccines, which have synthetic peptides conjugated to a meningococcal polysaccharide. Thus, new approaches to the solution of the problem of meningococcal disease vaccination serogroup B were open. In recent years, Russian researchers first suggested to use IgA1 protease (one of the major virulence factors of microbes and almost identical for mentioned below infections) for prevention of such diseases as meningococcal of all serogroups, pneumococcus and hemophilia infections. Patented processes for producing of the vaccine define domestic priority of its production and use.

ATP-Dependent Lon-proteases are components of the protein quality control system, which maintains cellular proteome. The Lon family consists of two subfamilies A and B, differing in subunit architecture and intracellular location. We propose here a reinterpretation of the domain organization of the non-catalytic N-terminal region of LonA proteases. Using Escherichia coli LonA protease (EcLon) as an example, it has been shown that a fragment (αN domain) located between the N-terminal domain and the AAA+ module is similar to the α1 domain of the first AAA+ module of chaperone-disaggregase ClpB. A coiled-coil (CC) region included in the αN domain of LonA is similar to the M domain of ClpB chaperones, which is inserted into the α1 domain. This region is suggested to adopt the structure similar to the propeller-like (PL) domain. The typical architecture of the N-terminal region of LonA proteases is postulated to be characterized by the obligatory presence of a PL domain, included in the αN domain, but may vary in the length and topology of the preceding N-terminal domain, which can have in some cases a more complex structure than in EcLon.

A method of the isolation and purification of IgA1 protease from a culture of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A has been developed. Three inactivated intermediates of the production of the meningococcal vaccine, a culture liquid, as well as a supernatant and precipitate obtained by the precipitation of bacterial cells by cetavlon, served as a starting material. The purity of IgA1 protease was determined by SDS-PAGE. An immunoenzyme assay for determining the IgA1 protease activity has been developed. The yield of the enzyme with a specific activity of 0.5 to 4 million units/mg from 103 g of the cetavlon precipitate (40 l of culture liquid) was about 600 µg. It was shown that IgA1 protease isolated from serogroup A meningococcus is capable of protecting experimental animals (mice) infected with meningococcus of serogroup B.

Chaperones are unique remodeling proteins that participate in a great number of intracellular processes and are involved in the correction of protein structure, the prevention of the aggregation of misfolded proteins, the destruction of protein aggregates, and also the unfolding of native protein targets for their translocation across a membrane. In addition to this, chaperones assist in the dismantling of active oligomers into inactive unfolded monomers for their subsequent proteolytic degradation and the assembly of folded subunits into protein assemblies and specific complexes. Data on the structure and functioning of molecular chaperones from five basic families are summarized in the review.

A number of new inhibitors of plasmepsin II (PlmII) Plasmodium falciparum , which was one of the key factors of survival of malarial parasite, was synthesized. The inhibitors were analogues of pepstatin with different substitutions for the alanine residue. Effects of the inhibitors on human PlmII and cathepsin D were studied. Inhibition of PlmII by the substrate was found. This discovery required modification of the Henderson method for determination of inhibition constants. Two synthesized inhibitors were shown to exhibit a pronounced selectivity to PlmII ( K i = 5.5 and 5 nM) in comparison with that of cathepsin D ( K i = 230 and 3000 nM, respectively).

The review characterizes the main enzymatic systems of selective proteolysis responsible for maintenance of intracellular proteome in prokaryotes, eukaryotes and archaea. The features of proteolytic components of the ATP-dependent proteases as well as similarity and diversity of their regulatory components belonging to AAA(+) ATPases are discussed.

Deletion of the transmembrane domain (TM-domain) of Archaeoglobus fulgidus LonB protease ( Archaeoglobus fulgidus ( Af Lon)) was shown to result in uncontrollable activation of the enzyme proteolytic site and in vivo autolysis yielding a stable and functionally inactive fragment consisting of both α-helical and proteolytic domains (αP). The ΔTM- Af Lon-S509A enzyme form, obtained by site-directed mutagenesis of the catalytic Ser residue, is capable of recombination with the αP fragment. The mixed oligomers were shown to be proteolytically active, which indicates a crucial role of subunit interactions in the activation of the Af Lon proteolytic site. The thermophilic nature of Af Lon protease was found to be due to the special features of the enzyme activity regulation, the structure of ATPase domain, and the quaternary structure.

We report here the first crystal structure of the N‐terminal domain of an A‐type Lon protease. Lon proteases are ubiquitous, multidomain, ATP‐dependent enzymes with both highly specific and non‐specific protein binding, unfolding, and degrading activities. We expressed and purified a stable, monomeric 119‐amino acid N‐terminal subdomain of the Escherichia coli A‐type Lon protease and determined its crystal structure at 2.03 Å (Protein Data Bank [PDB] code 2ANE). The structure was solved in two crystal forms, yielding 14 independent views. The domain exhibits a unique fold consisting primarily of three twisted β‐sheets and a single long α‐helix. Analysis of recent PDB depositions identified a similar fold in BPP1347 (PDB code 1ZBO), a 203‐amino acid protein of unknown function from Bordetella parapertussis , crystallized as part of a structural genomics effort. BPP1347 shares sequence homology with Lon N‐domains and with a family of other independently expressed proteins of unknown functions. We postulate that, as is the case in Lon proteases, this structural domain represents a general protein and polypeptide interaction domain.

Two subfamilies of Lon proteases that differ in the structure of fragments containing the catalytically active Ser residue were revealed by the comparison of more than sixty sequences of Lon proteases from various sources. The absence of the classic catalytic triad in the active site of Lon proteases was confirmed. The catalytic site of Lon proteases was shown to be represented by the Ser–Lys dyad.

Regulation of activity of the proteolytic sites of Lon protease was studied. It was found that ATP–Mg has the properties of a noncompetitive activator of peptidase sites. The processive mechanism of the hydrolysis of protein substrates by Lon protease was experimentally confirmed under the conditions of ATP hydrolysis. It was shown that the oligomeric state of the enzyme is the necessary prerequisite for the processive proteolysis by native Lon protease. The study of the properties of the mixed mutant Lon-K362Q/S679A confirmed the existence of intra- and intersubunit pathways of signal transduction from the ATPase to proteolytic sites. The mutual influence of substrates of Lon protease was studied, and the existence of cooperative interactions between the peptidase sites in the oligomeric enzyme was suggested.

ATP-dependent Lon protease degrades specific short-lived regulatory proteins as well as defective and abnormal proteins in the cell. The crystal structure of the proteolytic domain (P domain) of the Escherichia coli Lon has been solved by single-wavelength anomalous dispersion and refined at 1.75-Angstrom resolution. The P domain was obtained by chymotrypsin digestion of the full-length, proteolytically inactive Lon mutant (S679A) or by expression of a recombinant construct encoding only this domain. The P domain has a unique fold and assembles into hexameric rings that likely mimic the oligomerization state of the holoenzyme. The hexamer is dome-shaped, with the six N termini oriented toward the narrower ring surface, which is thus identified as the interface with the ATPase domain in full-length Lon. The catalytic sites lie in a shallow concavity on the wider distal surface of the hexameric ring and are connected to the proximal surface by a narrow axial channel with a diameter of similar to18 Angstrom. Within the active site, the proximity of Lys(722) to the side chain of the mutated Ala(679) and the absence of other potential catalytic side chains establish that Lon employs a Ser(679)-Lys(722) dyad for catalysis. Alignment of the P domain catalytic pocket with those of several Ser-Lys dyad peptide hydrolases provides a model of substrate binding, suggesting that polypeptides are oriented in the Lon active site to allow nucleophilic attack by the serine hydroxyl on the si-face of the peptide bond.

The crystal structure of the small, mostly helical alpha domain of the AAA+ module of the Escherichia coli ATP-dependent protease Lon has been solved by single isomorphous replacement combined with anomalous scattering and refined at 1.9A resolution to a crystallographic R factor of 17.9%. This domain, comprising residues 491-584, was obtained by chymotrypsin digestion of the recombinant full-length protease. The alpha domain of Lon contains four alpha helices and two parallel strands and resembles similar domains found in a variety of ATPases and helicases, including the oligomeric proteases HslVU and ClpAP. The highly conserved "sensor-2" Arg residue is located at the beginning of the third helix. Detailed comparison with the structures of 11 similar domains established the putative location of the nucleotide-binding site in this first fragment of Lon for which a crystal structure has become available.

ATP-dependent Lon proteases belong to the superfamily of AAA(+) proteins. Until recently, the identity of the residues involved in their proteolytic active sites was not elucidated. However, the putative catalytic Ser-Lys dyad was recently suggested through sequence comparison of more than 100 Lon proteases from various sources. The presence of the catalytic dyad was experimentally confirmed by site-directed mutagenesis of the Escherichia coli Lon protease and by determination of the crystal structure of its proteolytic domain. Furthermore, this extensive sequence analysis allowed the definition of two subfamilies of Lon proteases, LonA and LonB, based on the consensus sequences in the active sites of their proteolytic domains. These differences strictly associate with the specific characteristics of their AAA(+) modules, as well as with the presence or absence of an N-terminal domain.

The absence of direct correlation between the efficiency of functioning of ATPase and peptide hydrolase sites of Lon protease was revealed. It was shown that Lon protease is an allosteric enzyme, in which the catalytic activity of peptide hydrolase sites is provided by the binding of nucleotides, their magnesium complexes, and free magnesium ions in the enzyme ATPase sites. It was revealed that the ADP–Mg complex, an inhibitor of the native enzyme, is an activator of the Lon-K362Q (the Lon protease mutant in the ATPase site). Variants of functional contacts between different sites of the enzyme are considered. It was established that two ways of signal transduction from the ATPase sites to peptide hydrolase ones exist in the Lon protease oligomer--intra- and intersubunit ways. The enzyme ATPase sites are suggested to be located in the areas of the complementary surfaces of subunits. It is hypothesized that upon degradation of protein substrates by the E. coli Lon protease in vivo ATP hydrolysis acts as a factor of limitation of the enzyme degrading activity.

Some aspects of the Escherichia coli Lon protease ATPase function were studied around the optimum pH value. It was revealed that in the absence of the protein substrate the maximum ATPase activity of the enzyme is observed at an equimolar ratio of ATP and Mg 2+ ions in the area of their millimolar concentrations. Free components of the substrate complex (ATP-Mg) 2− inhibit the enzyme ATPase activity. It is hypothesized that the effector activity of free Mg 2+ ions is caused by the formation of the “ADP-Mg-form” of ATPase centers. It was shown that the activation of ATP hydrolysis in the presence of the protein substrate is accompanied by an increase in the affinity of the (ATP-Mg) 2− complex to the enzyme, by an elimination of the inhibiting action of free Mg 2+ ions without altering the efficiency of catalysis of ATP hydrolysis (based on the k cat value), and by a change in the type of inhibition of ATP hydrolysis by the (ADP-Mg) − complex (without changing the K i value). Interaction of the Lon protease protein substrate with the enzyme area located outside the peptide hydrolase center was demonstrated by a direct experiment.

In order to identify amino acid residues involved in ATP hydrolysis by Escherichia Lon protease Lon or participating in the signal transduction from the ATPase domain to the proteolytic one, potentially important residues of the ATPase domain were substituted using site-directed mutagenesis, and the properties of the resulting mutant enzymes were studied. It was found that residues K362, T363 (Walker's motif A), and D423 (motif B) are involved in the catalysis of ATP hydrolysis. K362 and T363 also participate in the system of domain-domain coupling, whereas D423 does not play a significant role in this process. Residue D387 is important for ATPase activity; however, it is not a catalytically active residue, as was earlier postulated in the literature. Residue Y493 is also involved in the signal transduction from the ATPase domain to the proteolytic one.

A new efficient substrate, Suc-Phe-Leu-Phe-SBzl, was proposed for studying the function of the Escherichia coli ATP-dependent Lon protease and its modified forms. The kinetic parameters of hydrolysis of the substrate were determined, The esterase activity of protease Lon was found to be nucleotide-regulated.