Biocatalysis: Mechanisms of Proteolytic Enzymes, 3rd Edition
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biophysics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 December 2026 | Viewed by 277
Editor
Interests: protein crystallography; proteases; kallikrein-related peptidases; metalloproteinases; enzyme kinetics; inhibitors; gylcosylation; human physiology; protein folding
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
It is a great honor for me to present the 3rd Edition of “Biocatalysis: Mechanisms of Proteolytic Enzymes”. As in the previous editions, the core topics are the investigation of the molecular mechanisms of proteases and their physiological regulation. An often overlooked fact is that proteases not only degrade natural substrates but activate substrates in the regulation of many biological and disease processes. In addition, the ever-developing proteomics reveal large protease–substrate networks in the cells and tissues of higher organisms. In order to add more pharmacological and medical relevance, we welcome studies of proteases with inhibitory antibodies and DNA or RNA aptamers, as well as of protease-activated prodrugs.
This Special Issue aims to collate experimental, computational, and comparative studies that promote a deeper understanding of the mechanistic principles of proteases. Thus, structural analyses from crystallography, cryo-EM, NMR, and MS that support functional and mechanistic research are welcome to be submitted. The overwhelming success in structure prediction by AlphaFold and related software facilitates the exploration of protease mechanisms. Also, AI-based methods are accelerating the discovery of pharmacological lead compounds targeting proteases and their implementation in preclinical and clinical studies. Furthermore, analyses of specificity changes upon allosteric modulator binding to proteases open up a significant new field in this context. Cryptic substrate binding sites are being discovered increasingly, which form allosterically upon ligand binding to proteases and offer new possibilities of drug design. Another promising research area comprises non-canonical amino acids and their many applications in substrates, inhibitors, and probes for proteases.
Submissions to this Special Issue, entitled “Biocatalysis: Mechanisms of Proteolytic Enzymes, 3rd Edition”, are welcome to be original research papers, including short communications, reviews, and perspectives.
Dr. Peter Goettig
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- aspartic proteases
- cryptic ligand binding sites
- cysteine proteases
- metalloproteases
- non-canonical amino acids
- prodrugs
- protease ligases
- SARS-CoV-2 proteases
- serine proteases
- threonine proteases
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