1. Noun. (enzyme) A protease found in certain animal cells ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Medical Definition of Furin
1. Subtilisin like eukaryotic endopeptidase with substrate specificity for consensus sequence Arg X Lys/Arg Arg at the cleavage site.
Furin is known to activate the haemagglutinin of fowl plague virus and will cleave the HIV envolope glycoprotein (gp160) into two portions, gp120 and gp41, a necessary step in making the virus fusion competent.
This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology
(11 Mar 2008)
