Synthesis of fluorescent peptidyl thioneamides and the assay of papain in the presence of trypsin.

Fluorescent peptidyl thioneamides are synthesized for the first time. The carbonyl oxygen of the scissile amide bond of the substrates was replaced by a sulfur atom. The proteolytic activities of trypsin and papain were measured against 5-(benzyloxycarbonyllysylthioamido)-isophthalic acid dimethyl ester (Z-Lys-psi[CS]-AIE) and 5-(benzyloxycarbonylphenylalanylarginylthioamido)-isophthalic++ + acid dimethyl ester (Z-Phe-Arg-psi[CS]-AIE) and were compared to the corresponding oxyamides. Kinetic constants were measured. With thioneamide substrates, no tryptic hydrolysis was observed. Papain, on the other hand, hydrolyzed both oxy and thioneamides. The Km values of the thioneamides were shown to be slightly lower for papain than for the oxyamides, but the efficiency of the overall catalytic activity was off set by the lower turnover number for the thio derivatives. With the present synthetic substrate technology, selective detection of cysteine proteases in the presence of serine proteases is difficult. The thioneamides reported here were hydrolyzed by papain alone in the presence of trypsin.