HOME
*





Granzymes
Granzymes are serine proteases released by cytoplasmic granules within cytotoxic T cells and natural killer (NK) cells. They induce programmed cell death (apoptosis) in the target cell, thus eliminating cells that have become cancerous or are infected with viruses or bacteria. Granzymes also kill bacteria and inhibit viral replication. In NK cells and T cells, granzymes are packaged in cytotoxic granules along with perforin. Granzymes can also be detected in the rough endoplasmic reticulum, golgi complex, and the trans-golgi reticulum. The contents of the cytotoxic granules function to permit entry of the granzymes into the target cell cytosol. The granules are released into an immune synapse formed with a target cell, where perforin mediates the delivery of the granzymes into endosomes in the target cell, and finally into the target cell cytosol. Granzymes are part of the serine esterase family. They are closely related to other immune serine proteases expressed by innate immune cel ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Cytotoxic T Cell
A cytotoxic T cell (also known as TC, cytotoxic T lymphocyte, CTL, T-killer cell, cytolytic T cell, CD8+ T-cell or killer T cell) is a T lymphocyte (a type of white blood cell) that kills cancer cells, cells that are infected by intracellular pathogens (such as viruses or bacteria), or cells that are damaged in other ways. Most cytotoxic T cells express T-cell receptors (TCRs) that can recognize a specific antigen. An antigen is a molecule capable of stimulating an immune response and is often produced by cancer cells, viruses, bacteria or intracellular signals. Antigens inside a cell are bound to class I MHC molecules, and brought to the surface of the cell by the class I MHC molecule, where they can be recognized by the T cell. If the TCR is specific for that antigen, it binds to the complex of the class I MHC molecule and the antigen, and the T cell destroys the cell. In order for the TCR to bind to the class I MHC molecule, the former must be accompanied by a glycoprotein ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Granzyme B
Granzyme B (GrB) is one of the serine protease granzymes most commonly found in the granules of natural killer cells (NK cells) and cytotoxic T cells. It is secreted by these cells along with the pore forming protein perforin to mediate apoptosis in target cells. Granzyme B has also been found to be produced by a wide range of non-cytotoxic cells ranging from basophils and mast cells to smooth muscle cells. The secondary functions of granzyme B are also numerous. Granzyme B has shown to be involved in inducing inflammation by stimulating cytokine release and is also involved in extracellular matrix remodelling. Elevated levels of granzyme B are also implicated in a number of autoimmune diseases, several skin diseases, and type 1 diabetes. Structure In humans, granzyme B is encoded by ''GZMB'' on chromosome 14q.11.2, which is 3.2kb long and consists of 5 exons. It is one of the most abundant granzymes of which there are 5 in humans and 10 in mice. Granzyme B is thought to hav ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


GZMA
Granzyme A (, ''CTLA3'', ''HuTPS'', ''T-cell associated protease 1'', ''cytotoxic T lymphocyte serine protease'', ''TSP-1'', ''T-cell derived serine proteinase'') is an enzyme. that in humans is encoded by the GZMA gene, and is one of the five granzymes encoded in the human genome . This enzyme is present in cytotoxic T lymphocyte granules. Cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL) and natural killer (NK) cells share the remarkable ability to recognize, bind, and lyse specific target cells. They are thought to protect their host by lysing cells bearing on their surface 'nonself' antigens, usually peptides or proteins resulting from infection by intracellular pathogens. The protein described here is a T cell- and natural killer cell-specific serine protease that may function as a common component necessary for lysis of target cells by cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer cells. This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction: :Hydrolysis of proteins, including fibronectin, type ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Perforin
Perforin-1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''PRF1'' gene and the ''Prf1'' gene in mice. Function Perforin is a pore forming cytolytic protein found in the granules of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and natural killer cells (NK cells). Upon degranulation, perforin molecules translocate to the target cell with the help of calreticulin, which works as a chaperone protein to prevent perforin from degrading. Perforin then binds to the target cell's plasma membrane via membrane phospholipids while phosphatidylcholine binds calcium ions to increase perforin's affinity to the membrane. Perforin oligomerises in a Ca2+ dependent manner to form pores on the target cell. The pore formed allows for the passive diffusion of a family of pro-apoptotic proteases, known as the granzymes, into the target cell. The lytic membrane-inserting part of perforin is the MACPF domain. This region shares homology with cholesterol-dependent cytolysins from Gram-positive bacteria. Perforin has ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Natural Killer Cell
Natural killer cells, also known as NK cells or large granular lymphocytes (LGL), are a type of cytotoxic lymphocyte critical to the innate immune system that belong to the rapidly expanding family of known innate lymphoid cells (ILC) and represent 5–20% of all circulating lymphocytes in humans. The role of NK cells is analogous to that of cytotoxic T cells in the vertebrate adaptive immune response. NK cells provide rapid responses to virus-infected cell and other intracellular pathogens acting at around 3 days after infection, and respond to tumor formation. Typically, immune cells detect the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) presented on infected cell surfaces, triggering cytokine release, causing the death of the infected cell by lysis or apoptosis. NK cells are unique, however, as they have the ability to recognize and kill stressed cells in the absence of antibodies and MHC, allowing for a much faster immune reaction. They were named "natural killers" because ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




GZMK
Granzyme K (GrK) is a protein that is encoded by the ''GZMK'' gene on chromosome 5 in humans. Granzymes are a family of serine proteases which have various intracellular and extracellular roles. GrK is found in granules of natural killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), and is traditionally described as cytotoxic towards targeted foreign, infected, or cancerous cells. NK cells and CTLs can induce apoptosis through the granule secretory pathway, which involves the secretion of granzymes along with perforin at immunological synapse In immunology, an immunological synapse (or immune synapse) is the interface between an antigen-presenting cell or target cell and a lymphocyte such as a T/B cell or Natural Killer cell. The interface was originally named after the neuronal syn ...s. Intracellularly, GrK may cleave a variety of substrates, such as the nucleosome assembly protein (NAP), HMG2, and Ape1 in the ER-associated SET complex, along with other targets that have dow ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Jürg Tschopp
Jürg Tschopp (born 1951 in Basel — died 22 March 2011 in the Swiss Alps) was a Swiss biochemist, known for his research on apoptosis and the immunology of inflammation. His greatest achievement was perhaps his team's discovery and scientific description of the inflammasome (which he named). Biography Tschopp studied chemistry with his 1974 ''Diplom'' thesis supervised by Joachim Seelig at the Biozentrum University of Basel. There Tschopp received in 1979 his doctorate in biophysics under the supervision of Jürgen Engel. As a postdoc Tschopp was supervised by Hans J. Müller-Eberhard at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. There with colleagues he showed "that the lytic pore of complement was formed by C9 multimers." At the University of Lausanne, Tschopp became an assistant professor in 1982, an associate professor in 1987, and a full professor in 1990 in the biochemistry department. Since 2003 he was a co-director of the biochemistry department. He and his coll ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Western Blot
The western blot (sometimes called the protein immunoblot), or western blotting, is a widely used analytical technique in molecular biology and immunogenetics to detect specific proteins in a sample of tissue homogenate or extract. Besides detecting the proteins, this technique is also utilized to visualize, distinguish, and quantify the different proteins in a complicated protein combination. Western blot technique uses three elements to achieve its task of separating a specific protein from a complex: separation by size, transfer of protein to a solid support, and marking target protein using a primary and secondary antibody to visualize. A synthetic or animal-derived antibody (known as the primary antibody) is created that recognizes and binds to a specific target protein. The electrophoresis membrane is washed in a solution containing the primary antibody, before excess antibody is washed off. A secondary antibody is added which recognizes and binds to the primary antibody ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Apoptosome
The apoptosome is a large quaternary protein structure formed in the process of apoptosis. Its formation is triggered by the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria in response to an internal (intrinsic) or external (extrinsic) cell death stimulus. Stimuli can vary from DNA damage and viral infection to developmental cues such as those leading to the degradation of a tadpole's tail. In mammalian cells, once cytochrome c is released, it binds to the cytosolic protein Apaf-1 to facilitate the formation of an apoptosome. An early biochemical study suggests a two-to-one ratio of cytochrome c to apaf-1 for apoptosome formation. However, recent structural studies suggest the cytochrome c to apaf-1 ratio is one-to-one. It has also been shown that the nucleotide dATP as third component binds to apaf-1, however its exact role is still debated. The mammalian apoptosome had never been crystallized, but a human APAF-1/cytochrome-c apoptosome has been imaged at lower (2 nm) resolution ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Inhibitor Of Apoptosis
Inhibitors of apoptosis are a group of proteins that mainly act on the intrinsic pathway that block programmed cell death, which can frequently lead to cancer or other effects for the cell if mutated or improperly regulated. Many of these inhibitors act to block caspases, a family of cysteine proteases that play an integral role in apoptosis. Some of these inhibitors include the Bcl-2 family, viral inhibitor crmA, and IAP's. Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a highly regulated process used by many multicellular organisms. Like any regulated process, apoptosis is subject to either activation or inhibition by a variety of chemical factors. Apoptosis can be triggered through two main pathways; extrinsic and intrinsic pathways. The extrinsic pathway mostly involves extracellular signals triggering intracellular apoptosis mechanisms by binding to receptors in the cell membrane and sending signals from the outside of the cell. Intrinsic pathways involved internal cell signaling pri ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Serine Protease
Serine proteases (or serine endopeptidases) are enzymes that cleave peptide bonds in proteins. Serine serves as the nucleophilic amino acid at the (enzyme's) active site. They are found ubiquitously in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Serine proteases fall into two broad categories based on their structure: chymotrypsin-like (trypsin-like) or subtilisin-like. Classification The MEROPS protease classification system counts 16 superfamilies (as of 2013) each containing many families. Each superfamily uses the catalytic triad or dyad in a different protein fold and so represent convergent evolution of the catalytic mechanism. The majority belong to the S1 family of the PA clan (superfamily) of proteases. For superfamilies, P: superfamily, containing a mixture of nucleophile class families, S: purely serine proteases. superfamily. Within each superfamily, families are designated by their catalytic nucleophile, (S: serine proteases). Substrate specificity Serine ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

ELISA
The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (, ) is a commonly used analytical biochemistry assay, first described by Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann in 1971. The assay uses a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presence of a ligand (commonly a protein) in a liquid sample using antibodies directed against the protein to be measured. ELISA has been used as a diagnostic tool in medicine, plant pathology, and biotechnology, as well as a quality control check in various industries. In the most simple form of an ELISA, antigens from the sample to be tested are attached to a surface. Then, a matching antibody is applied over the surface so it can bind the antigen. This antibody is linked to an enzyme and then any unbound antibodies are removed. In the final step, a substance containing the enzyme's substrate is added. If there was binding, the subsequent reaction produces a detectable signal, most commonly a color change. Performing an ELISA involves at least ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]