Statine is a gamma
amino acid
Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha ...
that occurs twice in the sequence of
pepstatin, a
protease inhibitor that is active against
pepsin
Pepsin is an endopeptidase that breaks down proteins into smaller peptides. It is produced in the gastric chief cells of the stomach lining and is one of the main digestive enzymes in the digestive systems of humans and many other animals, ...
and other
acid proteases. It is thought to be responsible for the inhibitory activity of pepstatin because it mimics the tetrahedral
transition state
In chemistry, the transition state of a chemical reaction is a particular configuration along the reaction coordinate. It is defined as the state corresponding to the highest potential energy along this reaction coordinate. It is often marked ...
of peptide catalysis.
References
Amino acids
{{Organic-compound-stub