Structural studies of cysteine proteases and their inhibitors

Cysteine proteases (CPs) are responsible for many biochemical processes occ urring in living organisms and they have been implicated in the development and progression of several diseases that involve abnormal protein turnover . The activity of CPs is regulated among others by their specific inhibitor s: cystatins. The main aim of this review is to discuss the structure-activ ity relationships of cysteine proteases and cystatins, as well as of some s ynthetic inhibitors of cysteine proteases structurally based on the binding fragments of cystatins.