Dipartimento di Scienze Biochimiche "A. Rossi Fanelli", Sapienza, Università di Roma, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy.
Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology, National Research Council, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy.
Mol Aspects Med. 2022 Apr;84:101055. doi: 10.1016/j.mam.2021.101055. Epub 2021 Dec 6.
Neuroglobin is expressed in vertebrate brain and belongs to a branch of the globin family that diverged early in evolution. Sequence conservation and presence in nervous cells of several taxa suggests a relevant role in the nervous system, with tight structural restraints. Twenty years after its discovery, a rich scientific literature provides convincing evidence of the involvement of neuroglobin in sustaining neuron viability in physiological and pathological conditions however, a full and conclusive picture of its specific function, or set of functions is still lacking. The difficulty of unambiguously assigning a precise mechanism and biochemical role to neuroglobin might arise from the participation to one or more cell mechanism that redundantly guarantee the functioning of the highly specialized and metabolically demanding central nervous system of vertebrates. Here we collect findings and hypotheses arising from recent biochemical, biophysical, structural, in cell and in vivo experimental work on neuroglobin, aiming at providing an overview of the most recent literature. Proteins are said to have jobs and hobbies, it is possible that, in the case of neuroglobin, evolution has selected for it more than one job, and support to cover for its occasional failings. Disentangling the mechanisms and roles of neuroglobin is thus a challenging task that might be achieved by considering data from different disciplines and experimental approaches.
神经球蛋白存在于脊椎动物的大脑中，属于球蛋白家族的一个分支，该分支在进化早期就已经分化。序列保守性和在几个分类群的神经细胞中的存在表明其在神经系统中具有重要作用，同时存在严格的结构限制。在发现神经球蛋白 20 年后，丰富的科学文献提供了令人信服的证据，表明神经球蛋白参与维持生理和病理条件下神经元的存活，然而，其特定功能或功能集的完整和明确的图片仍然缺乏。神经球蛋白的精确机制和生化作用难以明确归因，可能源于其参与一个或多个细胞机制，这些机制冗余地保证了脊椎动物高度专业化和代谢需求高的中枢神经系统的功能。在这里，我们收集了最近关于神经球蛋白的生化、生物物理、结构、细胞内和体内实验工作的发现和假设，旨在提供对最新文献的概述。人们常说蛋白质有工作和爱好，在神经球蛋白的情况下，可能是进化为它选择了不止一种工作，并支持它偶尔的失败。因此，阐明神经球蛋白的机制和作用是一项具有挑战性的任务，这可能需要考虑来自不同学科和实验方法的数据。
