The susceptibility of urokinase to affinity labeling by peptides of arginine chloromethyl ketone.

Pro-Gly-ArgCH2Cl, a reagent corresponding to the C-terminal sequence generated in plasminogen on activation by urokinase (EC 3.4.99.26) and probably by other plasminogen activators, was prepared. Pro-Gly-ArgCH2Cl was effective in the inactivation of urokinase at the 10(-6) M level (Ki 68 micrometers and k2 0.47 min-1). In contrast, only a slow inactivation was obtained by 10(-2) M N-tosyllysine chloromethyl ketone. Glu-Gly-ArgCH2Cl, N,N-dimethylaminonaphthalene-5-sulfonyl-Glu-Gly-ArgCH2Cl, and Ac-Gly-Gly-ArgCH2Cl were more reactive than Pro-Gly-ArgCH2Cl against urokinase by factors of 25, 6, and 3, respectively. The effectiveness of arginine chloromethyl ketones as affinity labels is highly dependent on binding in the S2 and S3 sites, thus sequence variations in the reagents exhibited differences in reactivity of up to four orders of magnitude. The most effective reagents had Gly in P2. Ac-Gly-Gly-ArgCH2Cl inactivates urokinase 50 times more rapidly than it does plasmin, thus providing a means of distinguishing the activity of plasmin from its activating protease whereas urokinase is almost inert to Ala-Phe-LysCH2Cl, a reagent which inactivates plasmin at the 10(-7) M level.