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Role of immunoproteasomes and thymoproteasomes in health and disease
Author(s) -
Kasahara Masanori
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
pathology international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1440-1827
pISSN - 1320-5463
DOI - 10.1111/pin.13088
Subject(s) - proteasome , biology , protein subunit , mhc class i , microbiology and biotechnology , major histocompatibility complex , cytotoxic t cell , protease , intracellular , cd8 , immune system , biochemistry , immunology , gene , in vitro , enzyme
The proteasome is a multisubunit protease that degrades intracellular proteins into small peptides. Besides playing a pivotal role in many cellular processes indispensable for survival, it is involved in the production of peptides presented by major histocompatibility complex class I molecules. In addition to the standard proteasome shared in all eukaryotes, jawed vertebrates have two specialized forms of proteasome known as immunoproteasomes and thymoproteasomes. The immunoproteasome, which contains cytokine‐inducible catalytic subunits with distinct cleavage specificities, produces peptides presented by class I molecules more efficiently than the standard proteasome. The thymoproteasome, which contains a unique catalytic subunit β5t, is a tissue‐specific proteasome expressed exclusively in cortical thymic epithelial cells. It plays a critical role in CD8 + cytotoxic T cell development via positive selection. This review provides a brief overview on the structure and function of these specialized forms of proteasome and their involvement in human disease.