National Institute of Biological Sciences, No. 7 Science Park Road, Beijing, 102206, China.
Protein Cell. 2010 Jul;1(7):616-20. doi: 10.1007/s13238-010-0082-2. Epub 2010 Jul 29.
Recent studies have unequivocally established the link between FTO and obesity. FTO was biochemically shown to belong to the AlkB-like family DNA/RNA demethylase. However, FTO differs from other AlkB members in that it has unique substrate specificity and contains an extended C-terminus with unknown functions. Insight into the substrate selection mechanism and a functional clue to the C-terminus of FTO were gained from recent structural and biochemical studies. These data would be valuable to design FTO-specific inhibitors that can be potentially translated into therapeutic agents for treatment of obesity or obesity-related diseases.
最近的研究已经明确确立了 FTO 与肥胖之间的联系。生物化学研究表明，FTO 属于 AlkB 样家族 DNA/RNA 去甲基酶。然而，FTO 与其他 AlkB 成员不同，它具有独特的底物特异性，并包含一个具有未知功能的扩展 C 端。最近的结构和生化研究为了解 FTO 的底物选择机制和 C 端的功能线索提供了帮助。这些数据对于设计 FTO 特异性抑制剂将非常有价值，这些抑制剂有可能转化为治疗肥胖或肥胖相关疾病的治疗药物。
