[Antagonistic effects of angiotensin II and morphine on synaptosomal calcium uptake]

Behavioral observations have repeatedly shown that the analgesic effect of morphine can be antagonized by intracerebroventricular injection of angiotensin I (A I), although mechanisms underlying the action were obscure. Since a prevention of Ca2+ uptake into the nerve terminals was considered as one of the mechanisms for morphine analgesia, we examined the effect of A I and morphine on the 45Ca uptake by rat brain synaptosomal preparations. Morphine of 10(-8)-10(-6) mol/L produced a dose-related suppression on synaptosomal 45Ca uptake, which was completely reversed by the opioid antagonist naloxone of 10(-6) mol/L. A I of 10(-8)-10(-6) mol/L, on the contrary, enhanced 45Ca uptake. This effect was totally abolished by saralasin, a A I antagonist, at 10(-6) mol/L. When synaptosomal preparations were incubated in a mixture of morphine (10(-6) mol/L) and A I (10(-8)-10(-6) mol/L), the effect of morphine was almost completely reversed. The results suggest that the distinct effect of A I may account for, at least in part, the antagonistic effect of A I on morphine analgesia.

Cholecystokinin-8 suppressed 3H-etorphine binding to rat brain opiate receptors

Radio receptor assay (RRA) was adopted to analyse the influence of CCK-8 on 3H-etorphine binding to opiate receptors in rat brain synaptosomal membranes (P2). In the competition experiment CCK-8 (1pM to 1 microM) suppressed the binding of 3H-etorphine. This effect was completely reversed by proglumide at 1 microM. Rosenthal analysis for saturation revealed two populations of 3H-etorphine binding sites. CCK-8 (1pM to 1 microM) inhibited 3H-etorphine binding to the high affinity sites by an increase in Kd (up to +235%) and decrease in Bmax (up to -80%) without significant changes in the Kd and Bmax of the low affinity sites. This effect of CCK-8 (10nM) was also completely reversed by proglumide at 1 microM. Unsulfated CCK-8 (100pM to 1 microM) produced only a slight increase in Kd of the high affinity sites (+64%) without affecting Bmax. The results suggest that CCK-8 might be capable of suppressing the high affinity opioid binding sites via the activation of CCK receptor.

Structures at the proteolytic processing region of cathepsin D

The amino acid sequences at the "proteolytic processing regions" of cathepsin Ds have been determined for the enzymes from cows, pigs, and rats in order to deduce the sites of cleavage as well as the function of the proteolytic processing of cathepsin D. For bovine cathepsin D, the "processing region" sequence was determined from a peptide isolated from the single-chain enzyme. The COOH-terminal sequence of the light chain and the NH2-terminal sequence of the heavy chain were also determined. The processing region sequence of porcine cathepsin D was determined from its cDNA structure, and the same structure from rat cathepsin D was determined from the peptide sequence of the single-chain rat enzyme. From sequence homology to other aspartic proteases whose x-ray crystallographic structures are known, such as pepsinogen and penicillopepsin, it is clear that the processing regions are insertions to form an extended beta-hairpin loop between residues 91 and 92 (porcine pepsin numbers). However, the sizes of the processing regions of cathepsin Ds from different species are considerably different. For the enzymes from rats, cows, pigs, and human, the sizes of the processing regions are 6, 9, 9, and 11 amino acid residues, respectively. The amino acid sequences within the processing regions are considerably different. In addition, the proteolytic processing sites were found to be completely different in the bovine and porcine cathepsin Ds. While in the porcine enzyme, an Asn-Ser bond and a Gly-Val bond are cleaved to release 5 residues as a consequence of the processing; in the bovine enzyme, two Ser-Ser bonds are cleaved to release 2 serine residues. These findings would argue that the in vivo proteolytic processing of the cathepsin D single chain is probably not carried out by a specific "processing protease." Model building of the cathepsin D processing region conformation was conducted utilizing the homology between procathepsin D and porcine pepsinogen. The beta-hairpin structure of the processing region was found to (i) interact with the activation peptide of the procathepsin D in a beta-structure and (ii) place the Cys residue in the processing region within disulfide linkage distance to Cys-27 of cathepsin D light chain. These observations support the view that the processing region of cathepsin D may function to stabilize the conformation of procathepsin D and may play a role in its activation.