Patent ID: 7604975

Claim:
An isolated, glycosylated endopeptidase enzyme, wherein said enzyme is isolated from a Streptococcus or a Staphylococcus bacterium, has a pH optimum between 7.5 and 10, having no cysteine, methionine or aromatic residues, an apparent molecular weight of 14,000 Da, wherein the endopeptidase cleaves cell surface protein virulence factors of said bacterium which contains a Leu Pro Xaa Thr Glu (SEQ ID NO: 1; LPXTG) motif, and is capable of cleaving an LPXTG substrate peptide SEQ ID NO:2 after the serine at position 6 and after the glutamic acid at position 9 to generate peptide fragments TGETANPFY (SEQ ID NO:7) and TANPFY (SEQ ID NO:6) respectively, and wherein the glycosyl carbohydrates are L-fucose, D-galactosamine, D-glucose, D-glucosamine, and D-mannose which are linked to the polypeptide backbone of said endopeptidase are essential for enzyme activity.