Endothelin-converting enzyme 2, also known as ECE-2, is a metalloprotease that possesses many properties consistent with it being a neuropeptide-processing enzyme. Endothelin-converting enzymes (ECEs) are the key enzymes in the endothelin (ET) biosynthesis that catalyze the conversion of big ET, the biologically inactive precursor of mature ET. Two enzymes, termed ECE-1 and ECE-2, have been molecularly identified. ECE-2 is found primarily in neural tissues, with high levels of expression in midbrain, cerebellum, hypothalamus, frontal cortex and spinal cord and moderate levels in hippocampus and striatum. ECE-2 is strongly down-regulated in inferior parietal lobe from Alzheimer disease patients (at protein level). ECE-2 converts big endothelin-1 to endothelin-1. It is involved in the processing of various neuroendocrine peptides, including neurotensin, angiotensin I, substance P, proenkephalin-derived peptides, and prodynorphin-derived peptides. ECE-2 may limit beta-amyloid peptide accumulation in brain. It may also have methyltransferase activity. A comparison of residues around the cleavage site revealed that ECE-2 exhibits a unique cleavage site selectivity that is related to but distinct from that of ECE-1.

> 93 % as determined by SDS-PAGE