Structural characterisation of inhibitory and non-inhibitory MMP-9–TIMP-1 complexes and implications for regulatory mechanisms of MMP-9

MMP-9 plays a number of important physiological functions but is also responsible for many pathological processes, including cancer invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis. It is, therefore, crucial to understand its enzymatic activity, including activation and inhibition mechanisms. This enzyme may also be partially involved in the “cytokine storm” that is characteristic of COVID-19 disease (SARS-CoV-2), as well as in the molecular mechanisms responsible for lung fibrosis. Due to the variety of processing pathways involving MMP-9 in biological systems and its uniqueness due to the O-glycosylated domain (OGD) and fibronectin-like (FBN) domain, specific interactions with its natural TIMP-1 inhibitor should be carefully studied, because they differ significantly from other homologous systems. In particular, earlier experimental studies have indicated that the newly characterised circular form of a proMMP-9 homotrimer exhibits stronger binding properties to TIMP-1 compared to its monomeric form. However, molecular structures of the complexes and the binding mechanisms remain unknown. The purpose of this study is to fill in the gaps in knowledge. Molecular modelling methods are applied to build the inhibitory and non-inhibitory MMP-9–TIMP-1 complexes, which allows for a detailed description of these structures and should allow for a better understanding of the regulatory processes in which MMP-9 is involved.