A 94-kDa protein, identified as neutral endopeptidase-24.11, can inactivate atrial natriuretic peptide in the vascular endothelium.

Neutral endopeptidase 24.11 (EC 3.4.24.11) inactivates atrial natriuretic peptide by cleaving the hormone between Cys7 and Phe8, and inhibitors of the enzyme have consequent natriuretic and diuretic properties. The in vivo sites of degradation of this peptide by the zinc-metallopeptidase, however, remain to be established. Because an endopeptidase-24.11-like activity has recently been reported in the rat mesenteric artery, we have further investigated the degradation of atrial natriuretic peptide in vascular tissue. Endopeptidase-24.11 activity was detected in solubilized membrane preparations from rat and rabbit vascular tissue, using [3H]D-Ala2-leucine enkephalin as substrate, and both rabbit and rat aorta preparations were also found to cleave atrial natriuretic peptide between Cys7 and Phe8. In both cases, hydrolysis was inhibited by neutral endopeptidase inhibitors, with Ki values close to their Ki values for the pure enzyme. In preparations of rabbit aorta denuded of endothelium by saponin treatment, the hydrolysis of the Gly3-Phe4 bond of [3H]D-Ala2-leucine enkephalin and the Cys7-Phe8 bond of atrial natriuretic peptide was reduced by greater than 90%. The high performance liquid chromatography method used to follow the degradation of atrial natriuretic peptide differed from previously published procedures, in that samples to be injected were first treated with excess dithiothreitol to reduce the Cys7-Cys23 disulfide bridge. This facilitated the separation of the intact peptide and its metabolites. The presence of the 94-kDa neutral endopeptidase in rabbit aortic tissue was definitively established using a new potent 125I-labeled inhibitor, [125I]RB104 [2-[(3-[125I]iodo-4-hydroxy)phenylmethyl]-4-N-[3- hydroxyamino-3-oxo-1-phenylmethyl propyl]amino-4-oxobutanoic acid] (Ki, 30 pM), which selectively labeled the enzyme after sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the membrane preparations. Therefore, despite its low concentrations in the vasculature, the presence of endopeptidase-24.11 almost exclusively in endothelial tissue suggests that the enzyme is ideally localized to inactivate circulating atrial natriuretic peptide.