Abstract
The p38 family is a highly evolutionarily conserved group of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) that is involved in and helps co-ordinate cellular responses to nearly all stressful stimuli. This review provides a succinct summary of multiple aspects of the biology, role, and substrates of the mammalian family of p38 kinases. Since p38 activity is implicated in inflammatory and other diseases, we also discuss the clinical implications and pharmaceutical approaches to inhibit p38.
Highlights
Faculty Reviews are review articles written by the prestigious Members of Faculty Opinions
On the day p38α was cloned, revealed that it belonged to the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family and that a Saccharomyces cerevisiae osmotic response protein kinase HOG1 was a p38α homologue3–5. p38α was named cytokine suppressive drug binding protein (CSBP) because it was identified as the target of a series of anti-inflammatory pyridinyl-imidazole compounds and as reactivating kinase (RK) because it phosphorylated and activated MK23–5
There are four members of the p38 group of MAPKs encoded by four different genes in mammals: p38α (MAPK14, chromosome 6p21.31 in humans), p38β (MAPK11, SAPK2b, Chr22q13.33)[6], p38γ (MAPK12, ERK6, SAPK3, Chr22q13.33)[7,8], and p38δ (MAPK13, SAPK4, Serk[4], Chr6p21.31)[9,10]
Summary
Faculty Reviews are review articles written by the prestigious Members of Faculty Opinions. Transcription factor phosphorylation by p38 is often stimulus and cell type dependent and plays a role in the cellular response to inflammation, DNA damage, metabolic stress, and many other stresses[62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76]. Enhances transcriptional activity Qiao L et al, J Biol Chem, 200682 Enhances transcriptional activity Morillo SM et al, Mol Cell Biol, 201285
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