Cleavage of interleukin 1β (IL-1β) precursor to produce active IL-1β by a conserved extracellular cysteine protease from Streptococcus pyogenes

V. Kapur, M. W. Majesky, L. L. Li, R. A. Black, James M. Musser

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

214 Scopus citations

Abstract

Streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin B (SPE B), a conserved extracellular cysteine protease expressed by the human pathogenic bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes, was purified and shown to cleave inactive human interleukin 1β precursor (pIL-1β) to produce biologically active IL-1β. SPE B cleaves pIL-1β one residue amino-terminal to the site where a recently characterized endogenous human cysteine protease acts. IL-1β resulting from cleavage of pIL-1β by SPE B induced nitric oxide synthase activity in vascular smooth muscle cells and killed cells of the human melanoma A375 line. Two additional naturally occurring SPE B variants cleaved pIL-1β in a similar fashion. By demonstrating that SPE B catalyzes the formation of biologically active IL-1β from inactive pIL-1β, our data add a further dimension to an emerging theme in microbial pathogenesis that bacterial and viral virulence factors act directly on host cytokine pathways. The data also contribute to an enlarging literature demonstrating that microbial extracellular cysteine proteases are important in host-parasite interactions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)7676-7680
Number of pages5
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume90
Issue number16
DOIs
StatePublished - 1993

Keywords

  • Cytokine
  • Pyrogenic exotoxin B
  • Toxic-shock-like syndrome
  • Toxin

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General
  • Genetics

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