The majority of lysosomal cysteine cathepsins are ubiquitously expressed enzymes. However, some of them differ in their specific cell or tissue distribution and substrate specificity, suggesting their involvement in determining normal cellular processes, as well as pathologies. Their proteolytic activities are potentially harmful if uncontrolled. Therefore, living organisms have developed several regulatory mechanisms such as endogenous protein inhibitors of the cystatin family, including the group of small cytosolic proteins, the stefins. The main focus of this review is stefins of various origins and their properties, structure, and mechanism of interaction with their target enzymes. Furthermore, oligomerization and fibrillogenesis in stefins and/or cystatins provide insights into conformational diseases. The present status of the knowledge in this field and current trends might contribute to identifying novel therapeutic targets and approaches to treat various diseases.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int
January 2025
College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin, 300392, China.
Citrullus lanatus is an important vegetable crop, but it is heavily polluted by cadmium. In this study, we used C. Lanatus as experimental material to investigate effects of different concentrations (0, 50, 100, 200, 400 µmolL) of exogenous melatonin, and grafting on the physiological growth index and anatomical structure of seedlings were studied by simulating Cd (180 mg L) stress environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Neuropathol
January 2025
Department of Neurology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Down syndrome (DS) is strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) due to APP overexpression, exhibiting Amyloid-β (Aβ) and Tau pathology similar to early-onset (EOAD) and late-onset AD (LOAD). We evaluated the Aβ plaque proteome of DS, EOAD, and LOAD using unbiased localized proteomics on post-mortem paraffin-embedded tissues from four cohorts (n = 20/group): DS (59.8 ± 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLangmuir
January 2025
Hubei Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Theory and Technology (China University of Geosciences), Wuhan 430074, China.
The strong solid-liquid interaction leads to the complicated occurrence characteristics of shale oil. However, the solid-liquid interface interaction and its controls of the occurrence state of shale oil are poorly understood on the molecular scale. In this work, the adsorption behavior and occurrence state of shale oil in pores of organic/inorganic matter under reservoir conditions were investigated by using grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChemMedChem
January 2025
Nankai University, State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry and Department of Chemical Biology, College of Chemistry, 94 Weijin Road, 300071, Tianjin, CHINA.
Membrane proteins, a principal class of drug targets, play indispensable roles in various biological processes and are closely associated with essential life functions. Their study, however, is complicated by their low solubility in aqueous environments and distinctive structural characteristics, necessitating a suitable native-like environment for molecular analysis. Nanodisc technology has revolutionized this field, providing biochemists with a powerful tool to stabilize membrane proteins and significantly enhance their research possibilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeadache
January 2025
Section of Clinical Pharmacology and Oncology, Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
Antibodies targeting either the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), such as galcanezumab, fremanezumab, and eptinezumab, or the receptor (erenumab) have been approved for the prevention of episodic and chronic migraine. Although widely used and generally effective, a proportion of patients discontinue treatment due to lack of efficacy. In both randomized controlled trials and observational studies, all anti-CGRP monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have consistently demonstrated comparable efficacy and tolerability, suggesting a pharmacological class effect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!