Fig. 6

Inhibitory activity of the wild-type and variant FhCL3 propeptides against cathepsin peptidases excreted-secreted by F. hepatica NEJs. The inhibitory activity of the wild-type ppFhCL3 (10 nM), variant proteins ppFhCL3_Tyr⁴⁶Lys⁴⁷/Ala⁴⁶Ala⁴⁷ (10 nM), ppFhCL3_Leu⁶⁶/Gly⁶⁶ (10 nM), ppFhCL3_Glu⁶⁸/Arg⁶⁸ (10 nM) or the broad-spectrum cathepsin inhibitor E-64 were assayed against the cathepsin peptidases excreted-secreted by NEJs 24 h post-excystment. The percentage of inhibition was calculated relative to the activity within the NEJs ES alone (Control). The experiments were performed in triplicate and the results are presented as mean ± standard deviation. Statistical analysis was carried out using One-way ANOVA with Dunnett multiple comparison (*** P ≤ 0.001)