Intracellular redox-sensing proteins and redox signal transduction / 中国病理生理杂志

ABSTRACT

Many signaling proteins in mammalian cells are sensitive to the changes of redox environment ,which may specifically affect functions of these proteins ,thereby modulating their downstream effects.These signaling pro-teins are thought to be intracellular redox sensors.Redox-sensing functions have been observed in a variety of transcription factors,kinases,phosphatases,ion channels,and cytoskeletal/structural proteins,while the list is still expanding.We propose that many proteins with redox-sensing functions remain to be identified ,and our understanding on the complexity of the redox signaling network in cells is incomplete.In this article ,we provide an overview of some established mammalian intracellular redox sensors.It is suggested that ,when we study pathophysiological mechanisms of disease ,we should keep it in mind that oxidative damage to macromolecules is not the only consequence of increased reactive oxygen production. Rather,changes in redox balance may be linked to multiple specific pathways that are capable of transducing redox signals and regulating various fundamental cellular functions.Aberrant activation or inactivation of these redox signaling mecha-nisms may have significant contributions to the pathogenesis of diseases.