An overview of the serpin superfamily

  • Genome Biol. 2006;7(5):216. doi: 10.1186/gb-2006-7-5-216.
Ruby H P Law  1 ,  Qingwei Zhang ,  Sheena McGowan ,  Ashley M Buckle ,  Gary A Silverman ,  Wilson Wong ,  Carlos J Rosado ,  Chris G Langendorf ,  Rob N Pike ,  Philip I Bird ,  James C Whisstock
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton Campus, Melbourne VIC 3800, Australia.
PMID: 16737556 DOI: 10.1186/gb-2006-7-5-216
Abstract

Serpins are a broadly distributed family of Protease Inhibitors that use a conformational change to inhibit target Enzymes. They are central in controlling many important proteolytic cascades, including the mammalian coagulation pathways. Serpins are conformationally labile and many of the disease-linked mutations of serpins result in misfolding or in pathogenic, inactive Polymers.