两种具有调节血管生成作用的氨基酰-tRNA合成酶

氨基酰-tRNA合成酶是生物体内蛋白质合成过程中的一类关键酶，它催化体内tRNA的氨基酰化反应.作为一类古老的蛋白质，氨基酰-tRNA合成酶在其漫长的进化过程中，通过其他结构域的插入或融合逐渐演化出许多新的功能.最近的研究结果表明，人酪氨酰-tRNA合成酶的片段具有促进血管生成的功能，而人色氨酰-tRNA合成酶的片段则具有抑制血管生长的功能.在哺乳动物细胞中，蛋白质的生物合成途径与细胞信号转导途径紧密相连.今后，随着对氨基酰-tRNA合成酶研究的不断深入，可以通过它们与细胞因子和信号转导相连的功能治疗人类的疾病.

Regulation of Angiogenic Signaling Pathway by Two Human Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are key enzymes in protein biosynthesis that catalyze aminoacylation of their cognate tRNA. During their long evolution, these ancient enzymes incorporated new domains by insertioos or fusions to the class-defining catalytic core to attend more functions. Recently, fragments of the closely related human tyrosyl- and tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetases were discovered to be active in angiogenesis signaling pathway. One synthetase fragment has proangiogenic activity, while the other is antiangiogenic. These two tRNA synthetases link protein synthesis to a major cell-signaling pathway in the given mammalian cells. The results with animals suggest that therapeutic applications for many human diseases such as neovascular eye disease and tumor are possible with these tRNA synthetases.