Peptidyl-glycine alpha-amidating mono-oxygenase activity towards a gonadotropin-releasing-hormone C-terminal peptide substrate, in subcellular fractions of sheep brain and pituitary.

The amidation of a synthetic peptide D-Tyr-Pro-Gly-Gly by sheep hypothalamic and pituitary preparations was measured. This substrate was designed as a glycine-extended C-terminal peptide analogue of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) to test the ability of these tissues to convert the product produced by cleavage of the GnRH prohormone into the active amidated decapeptide. An alpha-amidating activity capable of converting D-125I-Tyr-Pro-Gly-Gly into D-125I-Try-Pro-Gly-NH2 was identified in crude synaptosomal and neurosecretory-granule fractions from hypothalamus and anterior-pituitary secretory-granule preparations. This activity was stimulated by the addition of Cu2+ and reduced ascorbate, and was maximal at neutral pH in sulphonic acid buffers. Highest activity was measured in synaptosomes from the median eminence and medial basal hypothalamus and in pituitary granules. Lower activity was found in synaptosomes prepared from anterior hypothalamic tissue. Negligible activity was measurable in cerebral cortex and none in pineal synaptosomes. Direct comparison of alpha-amidation with D-125I-Try-Pro-Gly-Gly and a previously reported substrate D-125I-Tyr-Val-Gly showed that, although the latter was 15-20-fold more reactive, the optimal concentration of Cu2+ for amidation was similar with both substrates in medial-basal-hypothalamic synaptosomes and pituitary granules. Activity measured with 1 microM-D-125I-Tyr-Val-Gly was inhibited by increasing concentrations of D-Tyr-Pro-Gly-Gly, with 50% inhibition at 25 microM-D-Tyr-Pro-Gly-Gly, whereas activity with 3.3 microM-D-125I-Tyr-Pro-Gly-Gly was abolished by addition of 1 microM-D-Tyr-Val-Gly, evidence that the two substrates were competing for the same enzyme activity. Synaptosomal preparations demonstrated Michaelis-Menten kinetics for D-Tyr-Pro-Gly-Gly as substrate, with values of Km and V decreasing upon removal of ascorbate. We conclude that D-Tyr-Pro-Gly-Gly-directed alpha-amidation in sheep hypothalamic synaptosomes resembles the activity with D-Tyr-Val-Gly as substrate, as well as that demonstrated by others with D-Tyr-Val-Gly as substrate in rat hypothalamic and pituitary tissue. Although reactivity towards D-Tyr-Pro-Gly-Gly cannot be assumed to assess amidation solely of GnRH, the negligible D-Tyr-Pro-Gly-Gly-directed activity in the pineal gland and cerebral cortex, areas that are known to synthesize other alpha-amidated peptides, suggests some substrate specificity in alpha-amidating enzymes from different tissues.