Functional differentiation of cyclooxygenase and peroxidase activities of prostaglandin synthase by trypsin treatment. Possible location of a prosthetic heme binding site.

Treatment of prostaglandin (PG)H synthase purified from ram seminal vesicle microsomes with trypsin cleaves the 70-kDa subunits into 33- and 38-kDa fragments (Chen, Y.-N. P., Bienkowski, M. J., and Marnett, L. J. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 16892-16899). In contrast to a minimal decrease in cyclooxygenase activity, peroxidase activity declines rapidly following trypsin treatment. The time course for loss of guaiacol peroxidase activity corresponds closely to the time course for protein cleavage. The ability of trypsin-treated enzyme to support catalytic reduction of 5-phenyl-4-pentenyl-1-hydroperoxide in the presence of reducing substrates is significantly reduced. The products of metabolism of 10-hydroperoxy-8,12-octadecadienoic acid indicate that trypsin-treated enzyme catalyzes homolytic scission of the hydroperoxide bond in contrast to the heterolytic scission catalyzed by intact enzyme. Spectrophotometric titrations of hematin addition to trypsin-treated PGH synthase indicate approximately a 50% reduction in heme binding. These observations suggest that trypsin treatment of PGH synthase decreases the ability of the protein to bind prosthetic heme at a site that controls peroxidase activity. Comparison of the N-terminal sequence of the 38-kDa fragment of trypsin-treated PGH synthase to the amino acid sequence of the intact protein indicates that cleavage occurs between Arg253 and Gly254. Based on literature precedents and the results of the present investigations, we propose that the heme prosthetic group that controls the peroxidase activity of PGH synthase binds to the His residue of the sequence His250-Tyr251-Pro252-Arg253 located immediately adjacent to the trypsin cleavage site.