School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Innovative Drug Target Research & Innovation Center for Cell Stress Signaling, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China.
J Mol Cell Biol. 2020 Jul 3;12(6):403-409. doi: 10.1093/jmcb/mjaa018.
Studies over the past three years have substantially expanded the involvements of eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3) in messenger RNA (mRNA) translation. It now appears that this multi-subunit complex is involved in every possible form of mRNA translation, controlling every step of protein synthesis from initiation to elongation, termination, and quality control in positive as well as negative fashion. Through the study of eIF3, we are beginning to appreciate protein synthesis as a highly integrated process coordinating protein production with protein folding, subcellular targeting, and degradation. At the same time, eIF3 subunits appear to have specific functions that probably vary between different tissues and individual cells. Considering the broad functions of eIF3 in protein homeostasis, it comes as little surprise that eIF3 is increasingly implicated in major human diseases and first attempts at therapeutically targeting eIF3 have been undertaken. Much remains to be learned, however, about subunit- and tissue-specific functions of eIF3 in protein synthesis and disease and their regulation by environmental conditions and post-translational modifications.
过去三年的研究大大扩展了真核起始因子 3（eIF3）在信使 RNA（mRNA）翻译中的作用。现在看来，这个多亚基复合物参与了 mRNA 翻译的所有可能形式，从起始到延伸、终止和质量控制的每个步骤，以积极和消极的方式控制蛋白质合成。通过对 eIF3 的研究，我们开始将蛋白质合成视为一个高度整合的过程，协调蛋白质的产生与蛋白质折叠、亚细胞靶向和降解。同时，eIF3 亚基似乎具有特定的功能，这些功能可能在不同的组织和单个细胞之间有所不同。考虑到 eIF3 在蛋白质动态平衡中的广泛功能，eIF3 越来越多地与人类的重大疾病有关，并且已经开始尝试针对 eIF3 进行治疗，这并不奇怪。然而，关于 eIF3 在蛋白质合成和疾病中的亚基和组织特异性功能，以及它们如何受到环境条件和翻译后修饰的调节，还有很多需要了解。
