23484, A novel human ubiquitin protease

Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Micro-organism – tissue cell culture or enzyme using process... – Recombinant dna technique included in method of making a...

Reexamination Certificate

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C435S252300, C435S325000, C435S455000, C435S471000, C536S023100, C536S023500

Reexamination Certificate

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06329171

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a newly identified human ubiquitin protease belonging to the family of mammalian deubiquitinating enzymes. The invention also relates to polynucleotides encoding the ubiquitin protease. The invention further relates to methods using the ubiquitin protease polypeptides and polynucleotides as a target for diagnosis and treatment in ubiquitin-mediated or -related disorders. The invention further relates to drug-screening methods using the ubiquitin protease polypeptides and polynucleotides to identify agonists and antagonists for diagnosis and treatment. The invention further encompasses agonists and antagonists based on the ubiquitin protease polypeptides and polynucleotides. The invention further relates to procedures for producing the ubiquitin protease polypeptides and polynucleotides.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Ubiquitin System
Several biological processes are controlled by the ubiquitination of cellular protein. Cellular processes that are affected by ubiquitin modification include the regulation of gene expression, regulation of the cell cycle and cell division, cellular housekeeping, cell-specific metabolic pathways, disposal of mutated or post-translationally damaged proteins, the cellular stress response, modification of cell surface receptors, DNA repair, import of proteins into mitochondria, uptake of precursors into neurons, biogenesis of mitochondria, ribosomes, and peroxisomes, apoptosis, and growth factor-mediated signal transduction.
For some protein substrates ubiquitination leads to protein degradation by the 26S proteasomal complex. A wide variety of protein substrates are degraded by the 26S proteasomal complex following ubiquitination of the substrate. Degradation of a protein by the ubiquitin system involves two steps. The first involves the covalent attachment of multiple ubiquitin molecules to the substrate protein. The second involves degradation of the ubiquitinated protein by the 26S proteasome. In some cases, degradation of the ubiquitinated protein can occur by means of the lysosomal pathway.
The 26S proteasome comprises a 20S core catalytic complex which is flanked by two 19S regulatory complexes. The 26S complex recognizes ubiquitinated proteins. Substrate recognition by the 26S proteasome, however, may be mediated by the interaction of specific subunits of the 19S complex with the ubiquitin chain. The ubiquitinated protein is degraded by specific and energy-dependent proteases into free amino acids and free and reutilizable ubiquitin.
The 19S regulatory complex consists of many subunits that can be classified into ATPases and non-ATPases. This complex is thought to act in recognition, unfolding, and translocation of the substrates into the 20S proteasome for proteolysis. The regulatory complex contains isopeptidases capable of deubiquitinating substrates (Spataro et al. (1998)
British Journal of Cancer
77:448-455).
The ubiquitin proteasome pathway functions to degrade abnormal proteins, short-lived normal proteins, long-lived normal proteins, and proteins of the endoplasmic recticulum. Important regulatory proteins rapidly inactivated by proteolysis include c-JUN, c-FOS, and p53 (Lecker et al. (1999)
Journal of Nutrition
129:227S-237S). Conditions that stimulate protein degradation by the ubiquitin proteasome pathway include eating disorders, renal tubular defects, diabetes, uremia, neuromuscular disease, immobilization, burn injuries, sepsis, cancer, cachexia, hyperadrenocortisolism and hyperthyroidism.
Cellular proteins degraded by the ubiquitin system include cell cycle regulators, including mitotic cyclins, G1 cyclins, CDK inhibitors, anaphase inhibitors, transcription factors, tumor suppressors, and oncoproteins such as NF-&kgr;B and I&kgr;B&agr;, p53, JUN, &bgr;-catenin, E2F-1, and membrane proteins such as Ste2p, GH receptor, T-cell receptor, platelet-derived growth factor, lymphocyte homing receptor, MET tyrosine kinase receptor, hepatocyte growth factor-scatter factor, connexin 43, the high affinity IgE receptor, the prolactin receptor, and the EGF receptor (Hershko et al. (1998)
Annual Review of Biochemistry
67:425-479).
Ubiquitination does not only result in proteolytic degradation. For some protein substrates, ubiquitination is a reversible post-translational modification that can regulate cellular targeting and enzymatic activity. This includes targeting to the vacuole, activation of enzyme activity, such as Ik&bgr; kinase activation, and activation of cytokine receptor-mediated signal transduction (D'Andrea et al. (1998)
Critical Reviews In Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
33:337-352). The T-cell receptor undergoes ubiquitination in response to receptor engagement. Platelet derived growth factor undergoes multiple ubiquitination following ligand binding. Soluble steel factor has been shown to stimulate rapid polyubiquitination of the c-KIT receptor.
It has been shown that protein degradation accounts for regulation of proteins such as cyclins, cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors, p53, c-JUN and c-FOS (Spitaro et al. above). The ubiquitin system has also shown to be involved in antigen presentation. The 26S proteasome is responsible for processing MHC-restricted class I antigens (Spitaro et al. above).
The ubiquitin system has been implicated in various diseases. One group includes pathology that results from loss of function, a mutation in an enzyme or substrate that leads to stabilization of the protein and consequent build up of a protein to abnormally high levels. The second involves pathologies that result from a gain of function that produces increased protein degradation.
The ubiquitin system has been implicated in various malignancies. In cervical carcinoma, low levels of p53 have been found. This protein is targeted for degradation by HPV E6-associated protein. Removal of the suppressor by this oncoprotein may be a mechanism utilized by the virus to transform cells. Other results have shown that c-JUN, but not the transforming counterpart, v-JUN, is ubiquitinated and subsequently degraded. Other studies show that low levels of p27, a cell division kinase inhibitor whose degradation is necessary for proper cell cycle progression, is correlated with colorectal, and breast carcinomas. The low level of this enzyme is due to activation of the ubiquitin system.
Human genetic diseases involving aberrant proteolysis have been reviewed (Kato (1999)
Human Mutation
13:87-98). Cystic fibrosis has been correlated with the ubiquitin system. The cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator in cystic fibrosis patients is almost completely degraded by the ubiquitin system so that an abnormally low amount of the wild type protein is found on the cell surface. In Angelman's syndrome, one of the enzymes involved in ubiquitination (E3) is affected. In Liddle syndrome, the E3 enzyme is also affected.
The ubiquitin system can also affect the immune and inflammatory response. The persistence of EBNA-1 contributes to some virus related pathologies. A sequence on this protein was found to inhibit degradation by the ubiquitin system. This inhibited processing and subsequent presentation of viral epitopes by SMC protein.
The ubiquitin system has also been implicated in neurodegenerative diseases. Ubiquitin immunohistochemistry has shown enrichment of ubiquitin conjugates in senile plaques, lysosomes, endosomes, and a variety of inclusion bodies and degenerative fibers in many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lewy body diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. Further, in Huntington disease and spinocerebellar ataxias, the proteins encoded by the affected genes aggregate in ubiquitin- and proteasome-positive intranuclear inclusion bodies.
The ubiquitin system has been associated with muscle wasting (Mitch et al. (1999)
American Journal of Physiology
276: C1132-C1138 and Lecker et al. above) and muscle-wasting diseases and in such pathological states as fasting, starvation, sepsis, and denervation, all of w

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