Cysteine Protease Zymography: Brief Review

Cysteine proteases play multiple roles in basically all aspects of physiology and development. In plants, they are involved in growth and development and in accumulation and mobilization of storage proteins. Furthermore, they are engaged in signalling pathways and in the response to biotic and abiotic stresses. In animals and also in humans, they are responsible for senescence and apoptosis, prohormone processing, and ECM remodelling. When analyzed by zymography, the enzyme must be renaturated after SDS-PAGE. SDS must be washed out and substituted by Triton X-100. Gels are then further incubated under ideal conditions for activity detection. Cysteine proteases require an acidic pH (5.0-6.0) and a reducing agent, usually DTT. When screening biological samples, there is generally no previous clue on what peptidase class will be present, neither optimal proteolysis conditions are known. Hence, it is necessary to assess several parameters, such as incubation time, pH, temperature, influence of ions or reducing agents, and finally evaluate the inhibition profile. For detection of cysteine peptidase activity, the use of specific inhibitors, such as E-64, can be used to prevent the development of cysteine peptidase activity bands and positively confirm its presence. Here four different protocols to assess cysteine protease activity from different sources are presented.