Introduction: Proteases

Introduction to the Special Issue on Proteases and Proteolysis in Health and Disease.

This Special Issue on Proteases and Proteolysis in Health and Disease comprises 11 reviews that cover a broad range of topics in this diverse field. We hope you find these pieces as engaging and informative as we have and we are grateful to their authors for taking the time to write for The FEBS Journal.

Viral proteases.

Viruses are major pathogenic agents that can cause a variety of serious diseases in humans, other animals, and plants. Due to their clinical and scientific importance, viruses have been under intensive study ever since their first isolation about a century ago. The studies of viruses, their life cycles, and their interactions with the hosts have established many new areas of biological research...

Proteases in the Brain Proteases in Biology and Disease

Proteases and Anti-proteases: Molecular Mechanisms and Novel Therapeutic Targets

a,-Antitrypsin functions as a 'mousetrap ' to inhibit its target proteinase, neutrophil elastase. The common severe Z deficiency variant ( G ~ u ~ ~ ' + Lys) destabilizes the mousetrap to allow a sequential protein-protein interaction between the reactive-centre loop of one molecule and psheet A of another. These loop-sheet polymers accumulate within hepatocytes to form inclusion bodies that ar...

Proteases from Purulent Sputum

A procedure is described for the purification of the elastase and chymotrypsin-like enzymes from purulent sputum. This procedure permitted the isolation of 132 mg and 120 mg of the elastase and chymotrypsin-like enzymes, respectively, from 230 g of purulent sputum. The elastase enzymes consist of a family of five isozymes, and at least three isozymes comprise the chymotrypsin-like enzyme system...