Two variants of the major serine protease inhibitor from the sea anemone Stichodactyla helianthus, expressed in Pichia pastoris

• Correct processing and high production levels of ShPI-1 variants in Pichia pastoris.
• Two ShPI-1 variants with modified specificity and protease inhibitory strength.
• Highly improved selectivity toward elastases as result of K13L change at P1 site.
• Residues other than Tyr15 at the P2′ site are important for chymotrypsin binding.

The major protease inhibitor from the sea anemone Stichodactyla helianthus (ShPI-1) is a non-specific inhibitor that binds trypsin and other trypsin-like enzymes, as well as chymotrypsin, and human neutrophil elastase. We performed site-directed mutagenesis of ShPI-1 to produce two variants (rShPI-1/K13L and rShPI/Y15S) that were expressed in Pichia pastoris, purified, and characterized. After a single purification step, 65 mg and 15 mg of protein per liter of culture supernatant were obtained for rShPI-1/K13L and rShPI/Y15S, respectively. Functional studies demonstrated a 100-fold decreased trypsin inhibitory activity as result of the K13L substitution at the reactive (P1) site. This protein variant has a novel tight-binding inhibitor activity of pancreatic elastase and increased activity toward neutrophil elastase in comparison to rShPI-1A. In contrast, the substitution Y15S at P2′ site did not affect the Ki value against trypsin, but did reduce activity 10-fold against chymotrypsin and neutrophil elastase. Our results provide two new ShPI-1 variants with modified inhibitory activities, one of them with increased biomedical potential. This study also offers new insight into the functional impact of the P1 and P2′ sites on ShPI-1 specificity.