Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2012 Aug;12(4):458-63. doi: 10.1016/j.coph.2012.02.003. Epub 2012 Mar 7.
The Ras superfamily of small GTPases is a group of more than 150 small G proteins, all of which share some degree of homology to the founding member Ras. These small GTPases function as molecular switches within cells, impacting nearly all cellular processes. The Ras superfamily can be further divided into several smaller subfamilies, with those proteins that most closely resemble Ras belonging to the Ras subfamily. While heavily studied within the field of cancer biology, the Ras family of proteins also plays cardinal roles in immunity and inflammation. Here we review the roles of these molecular switches in regulating immune cell homeostasis and functions.
Ras 超家族的小分子 GTPases 是一组超过 150 种小分子 G 蛋白,它们都与创始成员 Ras 具有一定程度的同源性。这些小分子 GTPases 在细胞内充当分子开关,影响几乎所有的细胞过程。Ras 超家族可以进一步细分为几个较小的亚家族,与 Ras 最相似的那些蛋白质属于 Ras 亚家族。虽然在癌症生物学领域得到了广泛研究,但 Ras 蛋白家族在免疫和炎症中也起着至关重要的作用。在这里,我们综述了这些分子开关在调节免疫细胞稳态和功能中的作用。