Description
Product Characteristics: USP18(UBP43) is a 43 kDa protein that is known as an ISG15-deconjugating enzyme and an inhibitor of type I IFN signaling independent of its enzyme activity. USP18 can efficiently cleave only ISG15 fusions including native ISG15 conjugates linked via isopeptide bonds. It can be detected two bands(apparent MW of 38 and 35 kDa), the faster migrating one results from proteolytic processing in human primary hepatocytes.
Target Information: The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the ubiquitin-specific proteases (UBP) family of enzymes that cleave ubiquitin from ubiquitinated protein substrates. It is highly expressed in liver and thymus, and is localized to the nucleus. This protein efficiently cleaves only ISG15 (a ubiquitin-like protein) fusions, and deletion of this gene in mice results in a massive increase of ISG15 conjugates in tissues, indicating that this protein is a major ISG15-specific protease. Mice lacking this gene are also hypersensitive to interferon, suggesting a function of this protein in downregulating interferon responses, independent of its isopeptidase activity towards ISG15. [provided by RefSeq, Sep 2011]