Anomalous pH-dependence of the activity of human matrilysin (matrix metalloproteinase-7) as revealed by nitration and amination of its tyrosine residues

Abstract

Matrilysin activity exhibits a broad bell-shaped pH-dependence profile, with pKa values of 4.0 and 9.8. A maximum of five out of eight tyrosine residues in matrilysin were nitrated with tetranitromethane. On nitration of between one and five tyrosines, pKa at the alkaline side (pKe2) was shifted from 9.8 to 10.3–10.6, while that at the acidic side (pKe1) was not altered. The pKe2 that was shifted by nitration to 10.3–10.6 was restored to 9.4–9.7 by subsequent amination, suggesting that the shift in pKe2 is induced by a negative charge introduced on the most reactive tyrosine, Tyr-150. The Michaelis constant (Km) observed at pH 10 was decreased by nitration as a result of the increase in pKe2, suggesting that the residue with pKe2 may play a role in the recognition of substrate. When four or five tyrosines were nitrated, the activity at pH <7 decreased significantly, while that at pH 7–10 was unchanged, and thus the pH-dependence was not bell-shaped, but anomalous, with a third pKa (pKe3) of 6.2–6.4 in addition to pKe1 and pKe2. This suggests the possibility that a newly introduced nitrotyrosine residue has a strong influence on the activity as an ionizable group.