High impact information on CTSW

• Human cathepsin W (also called lymphopain) is a recently described papain-like cysteine protease of unknown function whose gene expression was found to be restricted to cytotoxic cells [1].
• Through differential screening of established human leukaemia cell lines, we have identified and molecularly cloned lymphopain, a novel cysteine proteinase of the papain family [2].
• Lymphopain exhibits a remarkably restricted cellular pattern of expression, being predominantly expressed in cytotoxic T-lymphocytes and natural killer cells [2].
• The human lymphopain locus maps to chromosome 11q13, encodes a polypeptide of 376 amino acids and is conserved in the mouse [2].
• Human cathepsin W (lymphopain) is a papain-like cysteine protease of unknown function that is specifically expressed in natural killer (NK) cells and to a lesser extent in cytotoxic T cells (CTL) [3].

Biological context of CTSW

• 7 kb gene was mapped to the long arm of chromosome 11 at position q13.1-3, a locus shared with CTSW [4].

Anatomical context of CTSW

• The recently described cysteine proteinase cathepsin W, also known as lymphopain, which is expressed specifically by CD8+ T lymphocytes, is phylogenetically related to the cruzipain-like group of the C1 family of peptidases [5].
• Human cathepsin W (lymphopain) is a cysteine protease that is restrictively expressed in cytotoxic cells, in particular NK cells [6].

References