Cloning, expression analysis and enzymatic characterization of cathepsin S from olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus)

Cathepsin S is a critical protease for the regulation of MHC class II immune responses, and thus is a potential target for developing immunosuppressive drugs in the pathogenesis of degenerative and autoimmune diseases. In this study, we cloned a cDNA encoding for cathepsin S (PoCtS) from the olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus. The 1170 bp PoCtS cDNA contained an open reading frame of 1014 bp, which consisted of a 25-residue putative signal peptide, a 96-residue propeptide and the 216-residue mature enzyme. The tissue-specific expression pattern of PoCtS, determined via RT-PCR and real-time PCR analysis, revealed ubiquitous expression throughout the entirety of healthy flounder tissues; however IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8 and PoCtS expression increased significantly in muscle 6 h post-injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The cDNA encoding proenzyme of PoCtS was expressed in Escherichia coli as a fusion protein with glutathione S-transferase in a pGEX-4T-1 vector. Also, the recombinant proPoCtS protein was overexpressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) as a 60 kDa fusion protein. Cathepsin S activity was detected through the cleavage of synthetic fluorogenic peptide substrates, such as Z-Val-Val-Arg-AMC and Z-Phe-Arg-AMC. The optimum pH for the protease activity was determined to be 8. This is the first report that characterized the enzymatic properties and analyzed the expression of piscine cathepsin S.