Prostasin: An Epithelial Sodium Channel Regulator

Prostasin is a glycophosphatidylinositol-anchored protein which is found in prostate gland, kidney, bronchi, colon, liver, lung, pancreas, and salivary glands. It is a serine protease with trypsin-like substrate specificity which was first purified from seminal fluid in 1994. In the last decade, its diverse roles in various biological and physiological processes have been elucidated. Many studies done to date suggest that prostasin is one of several membrane peptidases regulating epithelial sodium channels in mammals. A comprehensive literature search was conducted from the websites of Pubmed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's digital archive of life sciences literature and the National Library of Medicine. The data was also assessed from journals and books that published relevant articles in this field. Understanding the mechanism by which prostasin and its inhibitors regulate sodium channels has provided a new insight into the treatment of hypertension and some other diseases like cystic fibrosis. Prostasin plays an important role in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signal modulation. Extracellular proteases have been implicated in tumor metastasis and local tissue invasion because of their ability to degrade extracellular matrices.