Engineered Porcine Pepsinogen Exhibits Dominant Unimolecular Activation

An engineered pepsinogen, which was a fusion protein of thioredoxin and pepsinogen, exhibited dominant self-activation (unimolecular reaction; intramolecular activation) in contrast to recombinant pepsinogen which exhibited both unimolecular and bimolecular reactions (intermolecular activation mediated by pepsin released during activation). At pH values of 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0, activation curves for the engineered pepsinogen were hyperbolic rather than sigmoidal, indicating that self-activation was the dominant activation mechanism in comparison to the slower bimolecular activation. To confirm which activation mechanism was dominant, an equal mole of pepsin was added to accelerate the bimolecular reaction during activation. The addition of exogenous pepsin did not affect the activation rate of the engineered pepsinogen but accelerated pepsinogen activation through the bimolecular reaction. The above results indicated that the engineered pepsinogen exhibited, primarily, a self-activation mechanism and that bimolecular activation was negligible.