title: Cysteine protease inhibitors: from evolutionary relationships to modern chemotherapeutic design for the treatment of infectious diseases.
abstract: Cysteine proteases are one of the largest groups of proteases and are involved in many important biological functions in all kingdoms of life. They are virulence factors of a range of eukaryotic, bacterial and viral pathogens and are involved in host invasion, pathogen replication and disruption of the host immune response. Their activity is regulated by a range of protease inhibitors. This review discusses the various families of cysteine protease inhibitors, their different modes of inhibition and their evolutionary relationships. These inhibitors as well as the recent discovery of propeptide and propeptide-like inhibitors provide insights into the structures that are important for particular inhibitory mechanisms, thus forming the foundation for the design of future therapeutics.
authors.affiliation: Cooperative Research Centre for Oral Health Science, Melbourne Dental School and The Bio21 Institute of Molecular Science and Biotechnology, The University of Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: E C Y
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Toh
authors.forename: N L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Huq
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Dashper
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Reynolds
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D057056:Cysteine Proteases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D015853:Cysteine Proteinase Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D015853:Cysteine Proteinase Inhibitors; D057056:Cysteine Proteases