Critical Reviews in Oral Biology & Medicine, Vol 12, 192-216, Copyright © 2001 by International & American Associations for Dental Research
Cysteine proteases of Porphyromonas gingivalis
M. A. Curtis, J. Aduse-Opoku and M. Rangarajan
Department of Medical Microbiology, Bart's and The London, Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry, UK. M.A.Curtis@mds.qmw.ac.uk
The cysteine proteases of Porphyromonas gingivalis are extracellular
products of an important etiological agent in periodontal diseases. Many of
the in vitro actions of these enzymes are consistent with the observed
deregulated inflammatory and immune features of the disease. They are
significant targets of the immune responses of affected individuals and are
viewed by some as potential molecular targets for therapeutic approaches to
these diseases. Furthermore, they appear to represent a complex group of
genes and protein products whose transcriptional and translational control
and maturation pathways may have a broader relevance to virulence
determinants of other persistent bacterial pathogens of human mucosal
surfaces. As a result, the genetics, chemistry, and virulence-related
properties of the cysteine proteases of P. gingivalis have been the focus
of much research effort over the last ten years. In this review, we
describe some of the progress in their molecular characterization and how
their putative biological roles, in relation to the in vivo growth and
survival strategies of P. gingivalis, may also contribute to the
periodontal disease process.
