biomolecules Article Critical Factors in Human Antizymes that Determine the Differential Binding, Inhibition, and Degradation of Human Ornithine Decarboxylase Ju-Yi Hsieh 1, Yen-Chin Liu 1, I-Ting Cheng 1, Chu-Ju Lee 1, Yu-Hsuan Wang 1, Yi-Shiuan Fang 1, Yi-Liang Liu 1,2,3, Guang-Yaw Liu 2,3,* and Hui-Chih Hung 1,4,* 1 Department of Life Sciences and Institute of Genomics & Bioinformatics, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan;
[email protected] (J.-Y.H.);
[email protected] (Y.-C.L.);
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[email protected] (Y.-L.L.) 2 Institute of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan 3 Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40201, Taiwan 4 iEGG & Animal Biotechnology Center, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan * Correspondence:
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[email protected] (H.-C.H.); Tel.: +886-4-2473-0022 (ext. 12006) (G.-Y.L.); +886-4-2284-0416 (ext. 615) (H.-C.H.); Fax: +886-4-2285-1856 (H.-C.H.) Received: 19 November 2019; Accepted: 10 December 2019; Published: 12 December 2019 Abstract: Antizyme (AZ) is a protein that negatively regulates ornithine decarboxylase (ODC). AZ achieves this inhibition by binding to ODC to produce AZ-ODC heterodimers, abolishing enzyme activity and targeting ODC for degradation by the 26S proteasome. In this study, we focused on the biomolecular interactions between the C-terminal domain of AZ (AZ95–228) and ODC to identify the functional elements of AZ that are essential for binding, inhibiting and degrading ODC, and we also identified the crucial factors governing the differential binding and inhibition ability of AZ isoforms toward ODC.