Mendoza-Salazar Ivette, Fragozo Ana, González-Martínez Aneth P, Trejo-Martínez Ismael, Arreola Rodrigo, Pavón Lenin, Almagro Juan C, Vallejo-Castillo Luis, Aguilar-Alonso Francisco A, Pérez-Tapia Sonia M
Unidad de Desarrollo e Investigación en Bioterapéuticos (UDIBI), Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Prolongación de Carpio y Plan de Ayala S/N, Colonia Santo Tomás, Alcaldía Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City 11340, Mexico.
Laboratorio Nacional para Servicios Especializados de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación (I + D + i) para Farmoquímicos y Biotecnológicos, LANSEIDI-FarBiotec-CONACyT, Prolongación de Carpio y Plan de Ayala S/N, Colonia Santo Tomás, Alcaldía Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City 11340, Mexico.
Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2024 Jan 31;17(2):185. doi: 10.3390/ph17020185.
Monomeric ubiquitin (Ub) is a 76-amino-acid highly conserved protein found in eukaryotes. The biological activity of Ub first described in the 1970s was extracellular, but it quickly gained relevance due to its intracellular role, i.e., post-translational modification of intracellular proteins (ubiquitination) that regulate numerous eukaryotic cellular processes. In the following years, the extracellular role of Ub was relegated to the background, until a correlation between higher survival rate and increased serum Ub concentrations in patients with sepsis and burns was observed. Although the mechanism of action (MoA) of extracellular ubiquitin (eUb) is not yet well understood, further studies have shown that it may ameliorate the inflammatory response in tissue injury and multiple sclerosis diseases. These observations, compounded with the high stability and low immunogenicity of eUb due to its high conservation in eukaryotes, have made this small protein a relevant candidate for biotherapeutic development. Here, we review the in vitro and in vivo effects of eUb on immunologic, cardiovascular, and nervous systems, and discuss the potential MoAs of eUb as an anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and cardio- and brain-protective agent.
单体泛素(Ub)是一种在真核生物中发现的由76个氨基酸组成的高度保守的蛋白质。20世纪70年代首次描述的泛素的生物活性是在细胞外,但由于其在细胞内的作用,即调节众多真核细胞过程的细胞内蛋白质的翻译后修饰(泛素化),它很快变得重要起来。在接下来的几年里,泛素的细胞外作用退居幕后,直到观察到脓毒症和烧伤患者的较高存活率与血清泛素浓度升高之间存在关联。尽管细胞外泛素(eUb)的作用机制尚未完全了解,但进一步的研究表明,它可能会改善组织损伤和多发性硬化症中的炎症反应。这些观察结果,再加上由于泛素在真核生物中的高度保守性而具有的高稳定性和低免疫原性,使得这种小蛋白成为生物治疗开发的一个相关候选物。在这里,我们综述了eUb在体外和体内对免疫、心血管和神经系统的影响,并讨论了eUb作为抗炎、抗菌以及心脏和脑保护剂的潜在作用机制。