分子马达的分类及其在医药领域的应用进展

分子马达作为生物体重要组成部分,参与细胞内物质运输、有丝分裂及细胞骨架的构建等,是生物体内一种蛋白质类纳米机器。分子马达种类很多,沿微管定向运动的动力蛋白和驱动蛋白、以肌动蛋白丝为运动轨道的肌动蛋白、三磷酸腺苷(ATP)合成酶、以离子跨膜运输为驱动力的鞭毛马达等,它们运输受到阻碍会引起疾病,如胃癌、阿尔茨海默病及黑色素瘤等。分子马达定向运动的特性使其可靶向治疗疾病,因此针对分子马达的研究具有重大意义,目前已成为医药领域的研究热点之一。笔者首先详细介绍了分子马达的种类、组成结构、主要功能以及运动机制,然后总结了近几年分子马达的应用进展,最后对未来的发展进行了展望,并对分子马达研究当前存在的问题进行阐述。

Classification and Application Progress of Molecular Motors in the Field of Medicine

As an important part of organism, molecular motor is a kind of protein nanomachine, which is involved in intracellular material transport, mitosis and construction of cytoskeleton. There are many types of molecular motors, for example, dynein and kinesin that achieve directional motion along microtubules, myosin that orbits around actin filaments, ATP synthase, and flagellum motors that use transmembrane transport to power them. The impediment of intracellular molecular motor transport would cause many diseases, such as stomach cancer, Alzheimer′s disease and melanoma. The directional motion of molecular motor makes it possible to target diseases, so the research on molecular motor is of great significance and has become one of the research hotspots in the field of medicine. In this review, the types, structure, main functions and motion mechanism of molecular motors are firstly introduced in detail. Then, the application progress of molecular motors in recent years is summarized. Finally, the future prospect and current problems are described in this paper.