Autophagy is an intracellular degradation system that contributes to cellular homeostasis through degradation of various targets such as proteins, organelles and microbes. Since autophagy is related to various diseases such as infection, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, it is attracting attention as a new therapeutic target. Autophagy is mediated by dozens of autophagy-related (Atg) proteins, among which Atg4 is the sole protease that regulates autophagy through the processing and deconjugating of Atg8. As the Atg4 activity is essential and highly specific to autophagy, Atg4 is a prospective target for developing autophagy-specific inhibitors. In this review article, we summarize our current knowledge of the structure, function and regulation of Atg4 including efforts to develop Atg4-specific inhibitors.The Journal of Antibiotics advance online publication, 13 September 2017; doi:10.1038/ja.2017.104.

中文翻译：

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自噬调节蛋白酶 Atg4：结构、功能、调节和抑制。


自噬是一种细胞内降解系统，通过降解蛋白质、细胞器和微生物等各种靶标来促进细胞稳态。由于自噬与感染、神经退行性疾病和癌症等多种疾病有关，因此它作为新的治疗靶点而受到关注。自噬由数十种自噬相关 (Atg) 蛋白介导，其中 Atg4 是唯一通过 Atg8 的加工和解偶联来调节自噬的蛋白酶。由于 Atg4 活性对于自噬至关重要且具有高度特异性，因此 Atg4 是开发自噬特异性抑制剂的潜在靶点。在这篇综述文章中，我们总结了目前对 Atg4 结构、功能和调控的了解，包括开发 Atg4 特异性抑制剂的努力。《抗生素杂志》高级在线出版，2017 年 9 月 13 日； doi：10.1038/ja.2017.104。