Cathepsin K is a cysteine protease of the papain family and predominantly expressed in osteoclasts, activated fibroblasts, and macrophages. It displays a potent collagenase and elastase activity and thus plays a key role in bone and potentially vascular remodeling. However, little is known about the mechanism of extracellular matrix protein degradation by cathepsins. The talk will discuss recent findings explaining the mechanism of collagen and elastin degradation and how this knowledge can be translated into the discovery of novel mechanism-based inhibitors.
