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Heparanase is an endo β-D-glucuronidase, which degrades heparan sulfate side chains of heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) in the extracellular matrix. Heparanase plays an important role in ECM degradation, facilitating the migration and extravasation of tumor cells and inflammatory leukocytes (1,2,3). Upon degradation, heparanase releases growth factors and cytokines that stimulate cell proliferation and chemotaxis (4,5). Heparanase is a heterodimer comprised of a 50 kDa subunit harboring the active site and a 8 kDa subunit. It is produced as a latent 65 kDa precursor and proteolytically processed to its active form (1,6). Heparanase is highly expressed in myeloid leukocytes (i.e. neutrophils) in platelets and in human placenta. Human heparanase was found to be upregulated in various types of primary tumors, correlating in some cases with increased tumor invasiveness and vascularity and with poor prospective survival (7,8).

Aspartoacylas or ASPA, is a protein, found in several tissues such as skeletal muscle, cerebral white matter, kidney, liver & lungs. ASPA is a homodimer that catalyses the deacetylation of Nacetylaspartic acid. In order to create L-aspartate & acetate.

Enoyl-CoA Delta Isomerase 1 (ECI1) is a main mitochondrial enzyme which takes part in beta-oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids. ECI1 is a member of the hydratase/isomerase superfamily. ECI1 catalyzes the transformation of 3-cis and 3-trans-enoyl-CoA esters to the 2-trans-enoylCoA intermediates.

Arginase-1 is part of the urea cycle, it catalyzes the hydrolysis of arginine to ornithine and urea. There are two isoforms of mammalian arginase which differ in their tissue location, subcellular localization, immunologic crossreactivity & physiologic role. Arginase-1is a cytosolic enzyme and expressed primarily in the liver tissue. Inherited deficiency in this enzyme may lead toargininemia, which is an autosomal recessive disease in which hyperammonemia is detected.

Matrix metalloproteinases are a family of zinc and calcium-dependent endopeptidases that break down extracellular matrix proteins. The MMP9 is secreted as a 92kDa zymogen. Cleavage of ProMMP-9 results in the active enzyme, having a molecular weight of approximately 82kDa. MMP9 is composed of the following domains: a gelatin-binding domain consisting of three fibronectin type II units, a catalytic domain containing the zinc-binding site, a proline-rich type V collagen-homologous domain and a hemopexin-like domain. MMP9 is produced by the several cell types: monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils, keratinocytes, fibroblasts, osteoclasts and endothelial cells. MMP9 is involved in inflammatory responses, tissue remodeling, wound healing, tumor growth and metastasis. MMP9 may also play an important part in local proteolysis of the extracellular matrix and in leukocyte migration, as well as in bone osteoclastic resorption. MMP9 cleaves type IV and type V collagens into large C-terminal three quarter fragments and shorter N-terminal one quarter fragments. MMP9 can also degrade fibronectin but not laminin or Pz-peptide.
MMP9 defects may be a cause of susceptibility to intervertebral disc disease (IDD), also known as lumbar disk herniation (LDH).

GLYAT is a mitochondrial acyltransferase that conjugates glycine with acyl-CoA substrates in the mitochondria. GLYAT is vital to the detoxification of endogenous and xenobiotic acyl-CoA's.

Lysostaphin, an endopeptidase specific for the cell wall peptidoglycan of staphylococci, is an extremely potent anti-staphylococcal agent. Lysostaphin is used as a research and diagnostic tool. Because it lyses staphylococci efficiently, it is widely used when preparing staphylococcal DNA or other cellular components for genetic and biochemical studies and for the preparation of protoplasts for transformation. Preparation and analysis of bacterial DNA has become a powerful tool used by clinical and other microbiologists in epidemiological studies aimed at tracing sources of infection or bacterial contamination.

Ubiquitin-Conjugating Enzyme E2G2 (UBE2G2) is a protein coding gene which is a part of the E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme family. UBE2G2 accepts ubiquitin from the E1 complex and catalyzes its covalent attachment to various proteins. UBE2G2 is ubiquitously expressed mainly in adult muscle. UBE2G2 also takes part in endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD).

Full-length recombinant human neutrophil MMP-8, latent form.
Matrix metalloproteinase 8 (MMP-8), degrades interstitial collagens, acting preferentially on collagen type I.
Increased full-length MMP-8 protein was associated with infiltration into the skin of neutrophils, which are the major cell type that expresses MMP-8.
MMP-8 is synthesized and stored in specific granules in neutrophil leukocytes. MMP-8 activity is therefore regulated by factors such as surface-bound ligands (IgG or complement components) that release it through degranulation.Once released and activated through proteolytic or oxidative mechanisms, MMP-8 plays a major role in the connective tissue turnover that accompanies inflammatory processes.

Histone deacetylase 8 (HDAC8) is a member of the class 1 of the histone deacetylase/acuc/apha family. HDAC8 is biologically involved in skull morphogenesis and metabolic control of the ERR-alpha/PGC1-alpha transcriptional complex. Histones play a key role in transcriptional regulation, cell cycle progression, and developmental events. Histone acetylation/deacetylation modifies chromosome structure and affects transcription factor access to DNA.

AKR7A2 participates in the detoxification of aldehydes and ketones. AKR7A2 catalyzes the NADPH-dependent reduction of succinic semialdehyde to gamma-hydroxybutyrate. AKR7A2 is involved in producing the neuromodulator gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). AKR7A2 has extensive substrate specificity. AKR7A2 shows NADPH-dependent aldehyde reductase activity towards 2-carboxybenzaldehyde, 2-nitrobenzaldehyde and pyridine-2-aldehyde (in vitro). AKR7A2 reduces 1,2-naphthoquinone and 9,10-phenanthrenequinone (in vitro). AKR7A2 reduces the dialdehyde protein-binding form of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) to the non-binding AFB1 dialcohol. AKR7A2 takes part in protection of liver against the toxic and carcinogenic effects of AFB1, a potent hepatocarcinogen.

HPSE also known as Heparanase-1 is an enzyme which cleaves heparan sulfate proteoglycans to allow cell movement through changing the extracellular matrix. In fact, the Heparan sulfate proteoglycans are major components of the basement membrane and extracellular matrix. In addition, this cleavage can release bioactive molecules from the extracellular matrix. HPSE is significant for the overall degradation of proteins in lysosomes.

ST3 Beta-Galactoside Alpha-2,3-Sialyltransferase 5, also know as ST3GAL5 belongs to the glycosyltransferase family 29 and localized to the Golgi apparatus. ST3GAL5 is known to play a part in the induction of cell differentiation, modulation of cell proliferation, maintenance of fibroblast morphology, signal transduction, and integrin-mediated cell adhesion. ST3GAL5 is a type II membrane protein which catalyzes the formation of GM3 with lactosylceramide as the substrate. Mutation in this ST3GAL5 has been connected with Amish infantile epilepsy syndrome. Transcript variants encoding various isoforms have been found for this gene.

PAPPA is a large zinc binding protein, which acts as a metalloprotease and specifically cleaves IGFBP-4 and IGFBP-5, resulting in release of bound IGF. PAPP-A can also act as a regulator of IGF bioactivity in a number of biological systems, including the human ovary and cardiovascular systems. It was shown that PAPP A levels are elevated in patients with unstable angina or acute myocardial infarction. Furthermore, PAPPA is believed to be involved in local proliferative processes such as wound healing and bone remodeling. Moreover, PAPP-A is produced in high concentrations during pregnancy and is released into the maternal circulation. In placenta, PAPP A is expressed in X cells in septa and anchoring villi, and in syncytiotrophoblasts in the chorionic villi.
Lower levels of PAPPA are found in an array of other tissues including kidney, myometrium, endometrium, ovaries, breast, prostate, bone marrow, colon, fibroblasts and osteoblasts. PAPP-A is present in serum and placenta during pregnancy; with levels increasing throughout pregnancy. Low levels of PAPP A are associated with a number of foetal chromosomal abnormalities, as well as pre-eclampsia and stillbirth.
PAPPA levels may be a potentially highly specific marker for heart disease.
PAPP-A proteolytic activity is inhibited by targeting substrate exosite binding.

Celiac disease is an enteropathy that is characterized by intestinal lesions of variable severity. Tissue-type transglutaminase (tTG) is believed to be the predominant autoantigen for celiac disease and the corresponding autoantibodies show higher sensitivity and specificity than anti-gliadin antibodies. Highly pure recombinant human tTG is now available to replace the traditionally used tTG fraction from guinea pig.
Tissue-type transglutaminase antigens have been specifically modified for improved handling: exchange of an active site amino acid eliminates the protein cross-linking activity of the enzyme, while maintaining the native three-dimensional structure and the enzyme's secondary GTPase activity. This engineering assures reproducible properties of the antigen preparations through the absence of variable and ill-defined covalent aggregates of tTG antigen and host cell proteins.

GAPDH is a catalytic enzyme normally known to play a role in glycolysis. GAPDH exists as a tetramer composed of 36-kDa subunits and has a range of intracellular functions. GAPDH catalyzes the reversible reduction of 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate to glyceraldehyde 3-phosphophate in the presence of NADPH. Besides functioning as a glycolytic enzyme in cytoplasm, GAPDH has function in intracellular processes such as membrane fusion, microtubule bundling, phosphotransferase activity, nuclear RNA export, DNA replication and DNA repair. GAPDH catalyzes a vital energy-yielding step in carbohydrate metabolism, the reversible oxidative phosphorylation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate in the presence of inorganic phosphate and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). The enzyme exists as a tetramer of identical chains.

Legumain, also known as LGMN, is a cysteine endopeptidase which demonstrates strict specificity for hydrolysis of asparaginyl bonds. Furthermore, LGMN can also cleave aspartyl bonds slowly, in particular under acidic conditions. LGMN plays an essential role in the endosomal/lysosomal degradation system as the Legumain deficiency causes the accumulation of pro cathepsins B, H & L, another group of lysosomal cysteine proteases. Furthermore, over expression of LGMN in tumors is important for invasion/metastasis.

Ubiquitin Conjugating Enzyme E2Z, also known as UBE2z, is a protein coding gene which is a part of the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme family. UBE2z catalyzes the covalent attachment of ubiquitin to various proteins. UBE2z takes part in in apoptosis regulation and is also a specific substrate for UBA6, not charged with ubiquitin by UBE1.

GPT catalyzes the reversible transamination between alanine and 2-oxoglutarate to create pyruvate and glutamate. GPT has a crucial part in the intermediary metabolism of glucose and amino acids. GPT is broadly used as an indicator of liver reliability or hepatocellular destruction in clinical tests.

Uridine 5'-monophosphate synthase (UMPS), is a bifunctional enzyme that catalyzes the ultimate two steps of the de novo pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway. UMPS in eukaryotes links the orotate phosphoribosyltransferase and the orotidine-5’-monophosphate (OMP) decarboxylase activities into a single protein. The harmony of these 2 enzymes is assumed to be stabilized the catalytic centers as a result of the low molar concentration of the protein in mammalian cells. Mutations in UMPS are the reason of inherited orotic aciduria disease.

DESI1 belongs to the DeSI family and contains 1 PPPDE peptidase domain. This protein is a protease which deconjugates SUMO1, SUMO2 and SUMO3 from some substrate proteins and has isopeptidase but not SUMO-processing activity. DESI1 desumoylates ZBTB46.

Galactose-1-Phosphate Uridylyltransferase (GALT) catalyzes the 2nd step of the “Leloir pathway” of galactose metabolism, specifically the conversion of UDP-glucose + galactose-1-phosphate to glucose-1-phosphate + UDP-galactose. The deficiency of the GALT enzyme results in typical galactosemia in humans and may be fatal in the newborn stage if lactose is not eliminated from the diet. Galactosemia pathophysiology has not been clearly defined.

NADH Dehydrogenase1 Alpha Subcomplex 4 (NDUFA4) is a member of the complex I 9kDa subunit family. Mammalian complex I of mitochondrial respiratory chain is comprised of 45 different subunits. NDUFA4 protein has NADH dehydrogenase activity and oxidoreductase activity. NDUFA4 transfers electrons from NADH to the respiratory chain. The immediate electron acceptor for the NDUFA4 enzyme is assumed to be ubiquinone.