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Cystatins

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Cancer

  • 79 Accesses

Synonyms

Thiol-protease inhibitors; Thiostatins; TPI

Definition

Cystatins were originally defined as endogenous inhibitors of thiol- or cysteine-proteases. Later, the discoveries of several proteins whose primary sequence revealed substantial homology to the typical cystatin domain led to the definition of a cystatin superfamily. With the identification of other types of intracellular cysteine-proteases, however, it became clear that cystatins inhibit mainly cysteine-proteases present in endosomes and lysosomes. Additionally, many of the newer members of the cystatin superfamily have less than 30 % homology to classical cystatins and do not inhibit lysosomal cysteine proteases. Moreover, several proteins with little apparent amino acid sequence homology fold into typical three-dimensional structures attributed to cystatins. Thus, the term “cystatins” now refers to a heterogeneous group of proteins still lacking both a uniform identity and a cohesive definition.

Characteristics

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References

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See Also

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Science, College of Pharmacy, Touro University-CA, 1310 Johnson hane Mare Island, Vallyo, CA, 94592, USA

    Lauren M. Nunez & Daniel Keppler

Authors
  1. Lauren M. Nunez
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  2. Daniel Keppler
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Correspondence to Lauren M. Nunez .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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Nunez, L.M., Keppler, D. (2014). Cystatins. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_1450-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_1450-2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

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