Isolation and properties of recombinant DNA produced variants of human alpha 1-proteinase inhibitor.

Using the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promoter, nonglycosylated human alpha 1-proteinase inhibitor, representing 10% of the soluble cell protein, has been synthesized in yeast. Two forms of this protein were isolated with one being analogous to the human plasma protein and the other having the amino acid valine replacing methionine at position 358 (the P1 position). Both proteins were more sensitive to heat inactivation than the plasma form, and both had shorter half-lives in rabbits. These differences were presumably due to the absence of carbohydrate. Each protein could bind neutrophil elastase at a rate only slightly slower than that of human plasma alpha 1-proteinase inhibitor. However, the valine variant was stable to oxidation, while the P1 methionine-containing protein was readily inactivated. The specificity of alpha 1-proteinase inhibitor (methionine) was identical to that of the plasma form; however, the valine form could only effectively bind to neutrophil or pancreatic elastase, "trypsin-like" serine proteinases not being inactivated at all. These data indicate the potential importance of mutant forms of proteinase inhibitors, produced by recombinant DNA technology, as therapeutic agents for the inactivation of excess proteinases of a specific type in tissues.