Description
Granzymes are key components of the immune response that play important roles in eliminating host cells infected by intracellular pathogens. Several granzymes are potent inducers of cell death. A total of eight granzymes (A-G and M) have been identified in the mouse, but only five are known in humans (A, B, H, M, and granzyme 3), and granzyme H appears to be specifically human. Human granzyme H is a neutral serine protease that is expressed predominantly in the lymphokine-activated killer (LAK)/natural killer (NK) compartment of the immune system. In adenovirus-infected cells in which granzyme B (gzmB) and downstream apoptosis pathways are inhibited, granzyme H directly cleaves the adenovirus DNA-binding protein (DBP), a viral component required for viral DNA replication. This virus demonstrated that gzmH directly induces an important decay in viral DNA replication. Interestingly, gzmH also cleaves the adenovirus 1K assembly protein, a major inhibitor of gzmB, and relieves gzmB inhibition. Granzyme H has a very high amino acid identity (>9%) with many portions of the granzyme B sequence, particularly near the amino terminus of the molecule despite performing a distinct enzymic function