Regulation of thrombocyte stimulating and other activities of thrombin by modulators of the recognition site

: The structural and functional features of thrombin are under discussion: combination of restricted specificity and a central regulatory role in hemostasis. Thrombin specificity is mainly connected with special regions of the enzyme molecule--an additional recognition binding site for high molecular substrates. One can consider the additional site of thrombin as a kind of the allosteric centre changing thrombin-catalyzed functions at binding with modulator. Specific site of substrate (inhibitor or receptor) is used in the role of modulator. A computer search of that modulator was fulfilled by means of the program DOTHELIX. The peptides thymosin I and substance P which have regions similar to those of hirudin were shown to inhibit thrombin activity. The kinetic data point to the noncompetitive type of inhibition. The data on the high reactivity of the thrombin-activated protein C system confirm the idea of protein C to be the first defensive mechanism when thrombin is generated in blood and interacts with thrombomodulin.