Ms. Araujo et al., Preliminary characterization of a Kazal-type serine protease inhibitor from Caiman crocodilus yacare plasma, IMMUNOPHARM, 45(1-3), 1999, pp. 179-183
Blood serine protease inhibitors are becoming better understood and increas
ingly applied in blood clotting, cancer and other diseases. Reptiles are su
itable models for blood coagulation and related processes, moreover, caiman
is a good comparative model of a non-poisonous reptile. Recently, we repor
ted the purification of a kininogen, the presence of proteases involved in
blood clotting, and a serine protease inhibitor in Caiman crocodilus yacare
plasma. In this paper, we described the partial sequence of an inhibitor (
CcTI). The inhibitor is an 80-kDa protein, and it inactivates trypsin and c
hymotrypsin the hydrolysis of specific chromogenic substrates and in the de
gradation of gelatin. The inhibitor is member of Kazal-type inhibitor famil
y and consists of several domains, its putative reactive: site is Arg-His.
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