Description
Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L3 (UCHL3) is a member of the cysteine protease enzyme family and cloning of the human gene was first described by Wilkinson et al. (1989). The UCH subfamily of DUBs consists of four members: UCHL1, UCHL3, UCHL5 and BRCA1-associated protein-1 (BAP1) with UCHL3 sharing 54% homology with UCHL1 (Day and Thompson, 2010). Unlike other UCHs, UCHL3 can function as a C-terminal hydrolase for both NEDD8 and ubiquitin. UCHL3 may play a physiologically significant role in the cleavage of the C-terminus of NEDD8, which is required for NEDD8 to conjugate to target proteins (Wada et al., 1998). There is accumulating evidence suggesting that the expression and activity of UCH enzymes in cancers are abnormal. Increased levels of both UCHL1 and UCHL3 mRNA are associated with early tumour recurrence of invasive breast cancer and poor prognosis (Fang et al., 2010)