TWEAK shall inherit the earth.

摘要

Sometimes size really does not matter: recent papers on the tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-like ligand, TWEAK (tumour necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis), and its diminutive 129 amino-acid receptor, FN14 (fibroblast growth factor (FGF) -inducible 14kDa protein), describe an impressive and potent range of biological effects. The TNF super-family (TNSF) receptor FN14 has a small cytoplasmic domain, and the limited similarity of its extracellular domain to the cysteine-rich domains of the TNFSF receptors was only appreciated retrospectively when it was discovered that it bound TWEAK.1 Recent work has demonstrated that TWEAK knockout animals have an activated immune system that is skewed by elevated numbers of natural killer (NK) cells and responds lethally to bacterial endotoxins, but also shows a powerful ability to preventtumourgrowth.