Roles of heme insertion and the mannose-6-phosphate receptor in processing of the human myeloid lysosomal enzyme, myeloperoxidase

Biosynthesis of myeloperoxidase (MPO), a myeloid lysosomal hemoprotein critical for the optimal oxygen-dependent microbicidal activity of human neutrophils, is incompletely understood. The primary translation product undergoes cotranslational N-linked glycosylation with subsequent insertion of the Fe-containing prosthetic group into the peptide backbone, thereby converting the enzymatically inactive, heme- free apoproMPO into the peroxidatively active precursor, proMPO. Eventually, proMPO undergoes proteolytic processing into native, lysosomal MPO, with subunits of 59 and 13.5 Kd. We studied three unanswered questions regarding MPO biosynthesis: (1) At what point during MPO biosynthesis is the heme moiety inserted into the apoenzyme? (2) What consequences does heme-insertion have on subsequent processing events? (3) What role does the mannose-6-phosphate receptor (M6PR) system play in the delivery of MPO to the lysosome? Disruption of Golgi by brefeldin A (BFA) produced two major changes in MPO biosynthesis: (1) processing of the 89-Kd precursor to mature MPO was blocked and (2) constitutive secretion of the MPO precursor was inhibited. Inhibition of heme synthesis with succinyl acetone (SA) reduced peroxidase activity and profoundly blocked processing of proMPO to mature MPO. This inhibition of processing was not a generalized effect on all lysosomal enzymes, because the maturation of a non-heme-containing lysosomal enzyme, beta-glucuronidase, was not altered. Electron microscopy showed that, although the normal peroxidase staining of endoplasmic reticulum was absent in SA-treated cells, there were MPO- related peptides in the ER. The role of the M6PR system was assessed by immunoprecipitating fractions obtained from M6PR affinity column chromatography. The 89-Kd proMPO failed to adhere to the M6PR affinity column, whereas the 59-Kd heavy subunit of mature MPO was specifically eluted from the column. We interpret these data to indicate that: (1) processing of proMPO to mature MPO occurs in a post-ER compartment that is itself BFA-sensitive or is distal to a BFA-sensitive compartment and (2) heme insertion into apoproMPO precedes and may be a prerequisite for proteolytic processing to enzymatically active mature MPO. Our analysis of the M6PR system in MPO biosynthesis led to the unanticipated finding that there were phosphomannosyl residues on mature MPO, but none on proMPO. We suggest that the bulk of proMPO at any time is not phosphorylated, but, when generated, the phosphorylated proMPO is quickly processed to the phosphorylated 59-Kd subunit of mature MPO. Thus, if the M6PR is important in the intracellular transport of MPO, it is the phosphorylated mature MPO that is directed to the lysosomal compartment by this system.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)