For over a decade, the development of potent protease inhibitors, like the breakthrough drug Bortezomib, have been an important therapuetic strategy of cancer drug development. Now researchers are extending the use of protease inhibitors for the treatment of the autoimmune disease, multiple sclerosis.

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In a study published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, scientists used an inhibitor called ONX 0914 to selectively inhibit a special kind of proteasome, called an immunoproteasome. Immunoproteasome synthesis is induced by cellular stimulation with IFN-γ and tumor necrosis factor, which causes subunits of conventional proteasomes to have altered structure.
The unique structure of the immunoproteasome allows for unique processsing of MHC I peptides which result in stimulation of T cell differentiation and progression of autoimmune diseases.