A cathepsin is a type of protease, ie a type of protein that breaks apart other proteins. Cathepsins are present in all types of cells, from hepatocytes to neurons, and in many species including all animals.
Cathepsin actually refers to a family of proteases. There are approximately a dozen members of this family, which are distinguished from each other by their structures as well as which target proteins they most like to cleave.
The earliest record of "cathepsin" found in PubMed is from the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 1949 (see article 1 below).
Maver and Grecco. The hydrolysis of nucleoproteins by cathepsins from calf thymus. JBC 181 (2): 853-60.
Cathepsins have been implicated in cancer (see article 2 below for review),stroke (article 3) and even Alzheimer's Disease.
1. Maver and Greco. The hydrolysis of nucleoproteins by cathepsins from calf thymus. J Biol Chem. 1949 Dec;181(2):853-60. 2. Nomura and Katunuma. Involvement of cathepsins in the invasion, metastasis and proliferation of cancer cells. J Med Invest. 2005 Feb;52(1-2):1-9. Review. 3. Lipton. Ischemic cell death in brain neurons. Physiol Rev. 1999 Oct;79(4):1431-568.
A cathepsin is one of a family of proteases, a type of protein that breaks apart other proteins, found in many types of cells including those in all animals.
Cathepsin B seems to actually break down the proteins which cause amyloid plaquethe root of Alzheimer's symptoms, and may even be a pivotal part of the natural defense against this disease used by people who do not get it[2].
Involvement of cathepsins in the invasion, metastasis and proliferation of cancer cells.
Cathepsin K is a recently discovered protease that belongs to the papain family of cysteine proteases.
The presence of cathepsin K in chondroclasts and RA-synoviocytes also suggests that it is involved in the normal turnover of cartilage (Bromme et al., 1999).
With these functions of cathepsin K, mutations in the cathepsin K gene have been shown to cause pycnodysostosis, which is a rare autosomal recessive skeletal dysplasia characterized by short stature, osteosclerosis, bone fragility, and abnormal bone and tooth development (Chapman et al., 1997).
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