The Association of Collagenase with Human Diseases and its Therapeutic Potential in Overcoming them

Simran      Preet Kaur; Wamik      Azmi

doi:10.2174/2211550111302010003

Abstract

Collagen is one of the extremely hard to degrade structural matrix proteins. Collagenases are the enzymes which bring about the degradation of collagen into small peptides. The contribution of collagenases in several human diseases includes hyper production of collagenase while some diseases are originated due to inadequate amounts of collagenase in the body. The management of these diseases includes understanding of collagenase involvement and then developing the therapeutics for the treatment. This review focuses on the studies of different human diseases related to collagenases and discusses the strategies adapted to conquer them.

Keywords: Chronic total occlusions, Clostridium histolyticum, collagen, debridement, Duputyren’s contracture, epidermolysis bullosa, gelatinase-B, Liver cirrhosis, matrix metalloproteinases, metastasis, microbial collagenase, Peyronie’s disease, proteolysis, rheumatoid arthritis, Scleroderma, therapeutic enzymes