Furin-mediated protein processing in infectious diseases and cancer

Braun, Elisabeth; Sauter, Daniel

In recent years, modulation of protease activity has therefore emerged as a potential therapeutic approach in a variety of infectious and noninfectious diseases. One particularly promising target for therapeutic intervention is the cellular protease furin. This protease most likely cleaves and activates more than 150 mammalian, viral and bacterial substrates. 2 Among them are viral envelope glycoproteins and bacterial toxins, as well as cellular factors that promote tumor development and growth if they are hyperactivated ( Figure 1 ). In this review, we summarise our current knowledge of furinmediated protein processing in health and disease with a focus on the role of furin in viral protein processing. Furthermore, we describe cellular mechanisms regulating furin activity at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level. Finally, we present approaches that aim at modulating furin activity for therapeutic purposes and discuss their suitability for clinical application.