Sumoylation in gene regulation and cardiac disease: potential for drug discovery

Ilimbek Beketaev, Jun Wang Center for Stem Cell Engineering, Department of Basic Research Laboratories, Texas Heart Institute at St Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Houston, TX, USA Abstract: Small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) proteins are members of ubiquitin-like super-family proteins that can be covalently conjugated to their targets through multistep enzymatic reactions. Sumoylation has caught much attention due to its versatility, wide involvement in cellular events, and disease association. Sumoylation has been well studied at cellular and molecular levels. A newly emerging role that SUMO conjugation plays is in cardiac pathophysiology. In this review we will update new advances in the study of implications of the sumoylation pathway in the pathogenesis of cardiac diseases, discuss promise of the SUMO pathway as a potential therapeutic target, and conclude with future directions for SUMO research in the heart field. Keywords: posttranslational modification, SUMO, SENP, heart