Proteases Inhibitors Originated from Plants: Useful Approach for Development of New Drug

• Autor(a) principal: Silva-Lopez, R. E.
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Fitos
• Texto Completo: https://revistafitos.far.fiocruz.br/index.php/revista-fitos/article/view/90
• topic: Inibidores de Proteases de Plantas; Peptídeos; Serino-Proteases; Protease Inhibitors; Peptides; Serine Protease

Proteases and their inhibitors are found in all living organisms. These enzymes have crucial functions and their activities are regulated by many mechanisms, including inhibitors, but if their activities are not under control they can develop diseases and ultimately death. Natural inhibitors are variable sized peptides and are classified by the inhibited protease type. Serine protease inhibitors are among the major and most important inhibitors expressed in plants, and will be the focus of this revision. They are classified as: canonical inhibitors, non-canonical and Serpins, according to their structure and mechanism of action. Plants can express inhibitors constitutively or are induced by external stimuli and they confer resistance against parasites, insects, larval, microorganisms, plagues and pathogens. They are mainly expressed in seeds and grains, killing or repelling invader organisms. Many investigations are been conducted in order to purify, characterize the plant serine protease inhibitors and to evaluate their effects on the treatment of a large number of human pathologies. In addition, some inhibitors have already been tested in phase II clinical studies, such as soybean BBI.