Old Enzyme with New Interest:Review of Newly Understood NEP Functions and Its Potential Renglators / 中国生物化学与分子生物学报

ABSTRACT

Neprilysin(NEP)is a type Ⅱ integral membrane glycoprotein of the M13 zinc metalloprotease family．As a neuropeptide degrading enzyme,NEP has been discovered to possess an increasing amount of organ-specific functions from central nervous system to peripheral tissues since it was fimfly identified in 1974．For example,NEP has been shown to have an anti-tumour effect by inhibition of cell migration and proliferation while induction of an programmed cell death dependent of both its enzymatic activity and direct protein-protein interactions with key molecules involved in signal transduction pathwaysNEP Was also implicated to have neuropmtective effect by preventing the accumulation of the neurotoxic amyloid β-peptide (Aβ)in brain．Through investigating the progression of various human diseases,impaired NEP expression and activity were found to occur frequently．Based on these findings,modulation of NEP levels in pathological cells is considered to be therapeutically applicable as a strategy to recover normal cell functions and thereafter relieve symptoms of diseases．Great research effort is being contributed to the study of regulatory mechanisms involved in expression and activity of this enzyme,and a number of encouraging results have already been achieved．Besides androgens,well-recognised regulators of NEP transcription in prostate,the female hormone oestrogen,aqueous extract of willow herb,components of green tea and neuropeptides bombesin,somatostatin as well as the intracellular domain of amyloid precursor protein were all shown to have a stimulatory effect on NEP expression and／or its activity．