title: Proteasome inhibitors: complex tools for a complex enzyme.
abstract: As the dominant protease dedicated to protein turnover, the proteasome shapes the cellular protein repertoire. Our knowledge of proteasome regulation and activity has improved considerably over the past decade. Novel inhibitors, in particular, have helped to advance our understanding of proteasome biology. They range from small peptide-based structures that can be modified to vary target specificity, to large macromolecular inhibitors that include proteins. While these reagents have played an important role in establishing our current knowledge of the proteasome's catalytic mechanism, many questions remain. Rapid advances in the synthesis and identification of new classes of proteasome inhibitors over the last 10 years serve as a positive indicator that many of these questions will soon be resolved. The future lies in designing compounds that can function as drugs to target processes involved in disease progression. It may only be a short while before the products of such research have safe application in a practical setting. Structural and combinatorial chemistry approaches are powerful techniques that will bring us closer to these goals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bogyo
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000111:Acetylcysteine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D000345:Affinity Labels / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D002384:Catalysis; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases / Q000737:chemistry; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000737:chemistry; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D011480:Protease Inhibitors / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D046988:Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D000345:Affinity Labels; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes; D009842:Oligopeptides; D011480:Protease Inhibitors; C067713:lactacystin; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases; D046988:Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex; D000111:Acetylcysteine; C078846:epoxomicin