Title |
Human Epididymis Protein-4 (HE-4): A Novel Cross-Class Protease Inhibitor
|
---|---|
Published in |
PLOS ONE, November 2012
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0047672 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Nirmal Chhikara, Mayank Saraswat, Anil Kumar Tomar, Sharmistha Dey, Sarman Singh, Savita Yadav |
Abstract |
Epididymal proteins represent the factors necessary for maturation of sperm and play a crucial role in sperm maturation. HE-4, an epididymal protein, is a member of whey acidic protein four-disulfide core (WFDC) family with no known function. A WFDC protein has a conserved WFDC domain of 50 amino acids with eight conserved cystine residue. HE-4 is a 124 amino acid long polypeptide with two WFDC domains. Here, we show that HE-4 is secreted in the human seminal fluid as a disulfide-bonded homo-trimer and is a cross-class protease inhibitor inhibits some of the serine, aspartyl and cysteine proteases tested using hemoglobin as a substrate. Using SPR we have also observed that HE-4 shows a significant binding with all these proteases. Disulfide linkages are essential for this activity. Moreover, HE-4 is N-glycosylated and highly stable on a wide range of pH and temperature. Taken together this suggests that HE-4 is a cross-class protease inhibitor which might confer protection against microbial virulence factors of proteolytic nature. |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 2 | 3% |
Unknown | 62 | 97% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 10 | 16% |
Researcher | 10 | 16% |
Student > Master | 9 | 14% |
Student > Bachelor | 8 | 13% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 3 | 5% |
Other | 11 | 17% |
Unknown | 13 | 20% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 13 | 20% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 12 | 19% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 11 | 17% |
Chemistry | 3 | 5% |
Unspecified | 2 | 3% |
Other | 7 | 11% |
Unknown | 16 | 25% |