Article
The serpins: nature's molecular mousetraps.
Science progress - 1 Jan 2001
Huntington J A, Carrell R W
Abstract excerpt
A special family of inhibitors, known as the serpins, has evolved an extraordinary mechanism to enable the control of the proteolytic pathways essential to life. The serpins undergo a profound change in conformation to entrap their target protease in an irreversible complex. The solving of the structure of this complex now completes a video depiction of the changes involved. The serpin, just like a mousetrap, is...
Topics
- Animals
- Dementia
- Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic
- Humans
- Liver Cirrhosis
- Mutation
- Serpins
- Thrombosis