Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Rui'an, People's Republic of China.
MOE Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis & Protection and Innovation Center for Cell Signaling Network, Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2021 Aug 2;6(1):290. doi: 10.1038/s41392-021-00678-1.
Emerging evidence suggests that liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) represents a vital and ubiquitous phenomenon underlying the formation of membraneless organelles in eukaryotic cells (also known as biomolecular condensates or droplets). Recent studies have revealed evidences that indicate that LLPS plays a vital role in human health and diseases. In this review, we describe our current understanding of LLPS and summarize its physiological functions. We further describe the role of LLPS in the development of human diseases. Additionally, we review the recently developed methods for studying LLPS. Although LLPS research is in its infancy-but is fast-growing-it is clear that LLPS plays an essential role in the development of pathophysiological conditions. This highlights the need for an overview of the recent advances in the field to translate our current knowledge regarding LLPS into therapeutic discoveries.
新出现的证据表明，液-液相分离（LLPS）是真核细胞中无膜细胞器（也称为生物分子凝聚物或液滴）形成的基础上一个重要且普遍存在的现象。最近的研究表明，LLPS 在人类健康和疾病中起着至关重要的作用。在这篇综述中，我们描述了我们对 LLPS 的现有理解，并总结了其生理功能。我们进一步描述了 LLPS 在人类疾病发展中的作用。此外，我们回顾了最近用于研究 LLPS 的方法。尽管 LLPS 研究还处于起步阶段——但发展迅速——很明显，LLPS 在病理生理条件的发展中起着至关重要的作用。这凸显了需要对该领域的最新进展进行概述，以便将我们目前对 LLPS 的认识转化为治疗发现。
