What is leupeptidase?

Leupeptin is a protease inhibitor naturally produced by some types of soil bacteria Streptomyces, so it can prevent protein degradation Unlike many synthetic protease inhibitors, it has little toxicity to humans The compound has been shown in animal experiments to protect inner ear hair cells from being killed by treble and specific antibiotics, thus preventing hearing loss Leupeptidamycin is widely used in the first part of protein purification to prevent protease in tissues from degrading proteins of interest The natural product is a small peptide, a molecule of three linked amino acids, with some unusual properties The amino group of this compound has a cetyl-ch3ch2 group In addition, the carboxyl group differs from most peptides and proteins in chemical properties because it uses an aldehyde group instead of a part of the carbonyl group Protease can be divided into several categories One of the main differences is whether they cleave in the middle of the molecule like endopeptidases, or they nibble at both ends of the molecule like Endopeptidases Leupeptidase inhibits endopeptidase activity of protease In addition, it can be further classified based on the active site structure, such as cysteine and serine protease The protease inhibitor can prevent the activity of trypsin, protease K and other enzymes, and make other enzymes such as chymotrypsin lose efficacy The width of protease inhibition of leupeptidase makes it a very useful compound in biochemical research and mass production of proteins In general, at the beginning of isolation of proteins from biological sources, tissue division releases a large number of proteases that begin to degrade proteins of interest Biochemists usually include protease inhibitors in cocktails to prevent protein damage Because of its potency and activity against various proteases and its low toxicity, leupeptidase is often used as a component of such mixtures Ear hair can be damaged by long-term exposure to noise above 80 decibels, as well as meningitis, ear infections, certain antibiotics and anticancer drugs, aging and genetic factors Animal based experiments have shown that leupeptidase protects hair cells and prevents hearing loss in mammals due to high noise or specific antibiotics Aminoglycoside antibiotics, including gentamicin and neomycin, are prone to hearing loss.