Calcium binding protects E-cadherin from cleavage by Helicobacter pylori HtrA
Thomas P. Schmidt, Camilla Götz, Markus Huemer, Gisbert Schneider and Silja Wessler
Abstract:
In previous studies, we identified the serine protease HtrA from the human pathogen Helicobacter pylori as a bacterial E-cadherin-cleaving protease that targets the linker region between the E-cadherin domains. Investigating the influence of calcium on the HtrA-mediated cleavage of recombinant E-cadherin in vitro, we observed that calcium reduced HtrA-mediated E-cadherin fragmentation. Our results suggest that calcium impaired HtrA-mediated cleavage by interfering with the accessibility of calcium-binding regions between the EC domains, which have been identified as cleavage sites of HtrA.
The open access article can be found  here.

Reviewed by Hans Brandstetter