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Review
. 2020 Feb;101(1-2):4-20.
doi: 10.1111/iep.12344. Epub 2020 Mar 27.

ADAMTS-5: A difficult teenager turning 20

Salvatore Santamaria  1
Affiliations
Review

ADAMTS-5: A difficult teenager turning 20

Salvatore Santamaria. Int J Exp Pathol. 2020 Feb.

Abstract

A Disintegrin And Metalloproteinase with ThromboSpondin motif (ADAMTS)-5 was identified in 1999 as one of the enzymes responsible for cleaving aggrecan, the major proteoglycan in articular cartilage. Studies in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo have validated ADAMTS-5 as a target in osteoarthritis (OA), a disease characterized by extensive degradation of aggrecan. For this reason, it attracted the interest of many research groups aiming to develop a therapeutic treatment for OA patients. However, ADAMTS-5 proteoglycanase activity is not only involved in the dysregulated aggrecan proteolysis, which occurs in OA, but also in the physiological turnover of other related proteoglycans. In particular, versican, a major ADAMTS-5 substrate, plays an important structural role in heart and blood vessels and its proteolytic processing by ADAMTS-5 must be tightly regulated. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the discovery of ADAMTS-5, this review looks at the evidence for its detrimental role in OA, as well as its physiological turnover of cardiovascular proteoglycans. Moreover, the other potential functions of this enzyme are highlighted. Finally, challenges and emerging trends in ADAMTS-5 research are discussed.

Keywords: ADAMTS; aggrecan; cardiovascular disease; osteoarthritis; proteoglycans; versican.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic of aggrecan. KS chains are shown as green strings, CS chains as violet strings. Major ADAMTS‐5 cleavage sites are reported. Sequences are for human aggrecan (UniProt ID: P16112). In brackets the preferential order of cleavage is reported36.Cleavages at Glu2053↓Leu2054 and Glu1953↓Ala1954 (indicated by 2') follow the primary cleavage at Glu1848↓Gly1849 and represent C‐terminal processing events occurring in parallel to cleavage at Glu1679↓ Gly1680.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Physiological and pathological functions of ADAMTS‐5. For discussion, see text
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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