Department of Haemostasis and Haemostatic Disorders, Medical University of Lodz, 92-215 Lodz, Poland.
MOE Key Laboratory of Environment and Genes Related to Diseases, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University, West Yanta Road, Xi'an 710061, China.
Molecules. 2019 May 30;24(11):2062. doi: 10.3390/molecules24112062.
C-reactive protein (CRP) is an intriguing protein which plays a variety of roles in either physiological or pathophysiological states. For years it has been regarded merely as a useful biomarker of infection, tissue injury and inflammation, and it was only in the early 80s that the modified isoforms (mCRP) of native CRP (nCRP) appeared. It soon became clear that the roles of native CRP should be clearly discriminated from those of the modified form and so the impacts of both isoforms were divided to a certain degree between physiological and pathophysiological states. For decades, CRP has been regarded only as a hallmark of inflammation; however, it has since been recognised as a significant predictor of future episodes of cardiovascular disease, independent of other risk factors. The existence of modified CRP isoforms and their possible relevance to various pathophysiological conditions, suggested over thirty years ago, has prompted the search for structural and functional dissimilarities between the pentameric nCRP and monomeric mCRP isoforms. New attempts to identify the possible relevance between the diversity of structures and their opposing functions have initiated a new era of research on C-reactive protein. This review discusses the biochemical aspects of CRP physiology, emphasizing the supposed relevance between the structural biology of CRP isoforms and their differentiated physiological and pathophysiological roles.
C-反应蛋白（CRP）是一种有趣的蛋白质，在生理或病理状态下发挥着多种作用。多年来，它一直被仅仅视为感染、组织损伤和炎症的有用生物标志物，直到 80 年代初，天然 CRP（nCRP）的修饰异构体（mCRP）才出现。很快就清楚了，天然 CRP 的作用应该与修饰形式的作用明确区分开来，因此两种异构体的影响在一定程度上被划分为生理和病理状态。几十年来，CRP 一直被认为只是炎症的标志；然而，自那时以来，它已被认为是心血管疾病未来发作的重要预测因素，独立于其他危险因素。三十多年前，修饰型 CRP 异构体的存在及其与各种病理生理状况的可能相关性，促使人们寻找五聚体 nCRP 和单体 mCRP 异构体之间的结构和功能差异。新的尝试旨在确定结构多样性及其相反功能之间可能的相关性，开创了 CRP 研究的新纪元。本文讨论了 CRP 生理学的生化方面，强调了 CRP 异构体的结构生物学与其分化的生理和病理生理作用之间的假定相关性。
