Carboxylesterase (CES) (羧酸酯酶)

Cboxylesterases (CES) are serine hydrolases belonging to the superfamily of proteins with α/β hydrolase fold. Cboxylesterases are widely distributed in many tissues including liver, intestine, lung and kidney. Cboxylesterases catalyze the ester cleavage of a large number of structurally diverse ester- or amide-containing substrates into the corresponding alcohol and carboxylic acid. Actually, Cboxylesterases can hydrolyze ester, thioester, amide, and carbamate linkages in a wide variety of endo- and xenobiotic compounds, thus playing key roles in both endobiotic metabolism, and in activation and/or detoxification of xenobiotics. In humans, three Cboxylesterases have been identified, namely human carboxylesterase 1 (CES1), CES2, and CES3. Among them, CES1 and CES2 are two widely studied isoenzymes involved in xenobiotic metabolism. Cboxylesterases play an important role in the metabolism of various xenobiotics including ester drugs and environmental toxicants, and also participate in lipid homeostasis^[1].