Gene info
The enzymes NADPH oxidase (NOX) and dual oxidase (DUOX) generate ROS in a regulated manner, producing reactive oxygen in various cells and tissues in response to growth factors, cytokines and calcium signals. The oxidase consists of the catalytic subunit gp91phox (otherwise known as NOX2), together with the regulatory subunits p22phox, p47phox, p40phox, p67phox and the small GTPase RAC. The enzyme activity of gp91phox is regulated by the assembly of these regulatory subunits with gp91phox to form an active complex. In 1999, the first of the NOX homologues of gp91phox was described as NOX1. The enzyme was cloned from a colon epithelial cell complementary DNA library. When expressed in cells, NOX1 generated low amounts of ROS, but high-level ROS production by NOX1 was subsequently achieved by co-expression with novel regulatory subunits (described later). Subsequently, NOX3 and NOX4 were cloned, and the latter was shown to generate high levels of ROS when expressed in cells. NOX organizer 1 (NOXO1) is a homologue of p47phox and has an almost identical domain organization, except that it lacks the auto-inhibitory region. NOX activator 1 (NOXA1) is a homologue of p67phox and similarly shares the same domain organization, except that it lacks one of the two SH3 domains that are present in p67phox. Co-transfection of NOX1, NOXO1 and NOXA1 results in marked ROS generation. Similar to p47phox, NOXO1 binds to p22phox, which is required for NOX1-dependent activity. NOXA1 has a well-conserved activation domain, implying a conserved mechanism for regulating the activity of the target NOX enzyme. Taken from: Lambeth JD. Nat Rev Immunol. 2004 Mar;4:181-9.