这篇文章提出“peptideins”这一新名称，指人类细胞内比传统蛋白更小、功能尚未明确的分子群，显示出命名选择可显著影响一类研究是否获得资源与关注。文章在《Nature》发表，Sebastiaan van Heesch 团队认为 peptideins 可能揭示新生物学机制并带来药物靶点，尤其在癌症免疫治疗和疫苗研究中具有潜在价值。

经典模型认为 DNA 先转录为 RNA，再由核糖体翻译成肽链，蛋白质是其中尺寸较大、功能已知且跨物种保守的一部分。人类目前已确认约 19,500 种蛋白，包括 p53 和胰岛素等关键分子，但核糖体足迹测序与更灵敏的质谱显示，翻译也发生在非经典基因组区域，推动“暗蛋白组”研究。

整合既有数据后，论文报告发现 1,785 个微蛋白，其中约 65% 少于 50 个氨基酸，长度低于已知蛋白中超过 99% 的范围。ASNSD1-uORF 与儿童髓母细胞瘤进展相关，humanin 与应激耐受及衰老/神经退行关系紧密；一些候选还在肿瘤细胞表面出现并可能被免疫系统识别，但多数 peptidein 仍未被功能验证。

The article introduces “peptideins,” a newly coined class of human-cell molecules smaller than conventional proteins and often without clearly defined functions, illustrating how naming can accelerate or stall a field. In a Nature paper led by Sebastiaan van Heesch, the authors argue that peptideins may reveal new biological mechanisms and potential drug targets, especially for cancer immunotherapy and vaccine research.

The classical model is that DNA is transcribed into RNA and translated by ribosomes into peptides, with proteins representing the larger, functionally characterized, evolutionarily conserved subset. Humans currently have around 19,500 recognized proteins—well-known examples include p53 and insulin—but ribosome profiling and increasingly sensitive mass spectrometry show translation also occurs outside canonical gene regions, expanding the “dark proteome.”

By aggregating existing datasets, the study reports 1,785 microproteins, and about 65% are under 50 amino acids, shorter than over 99% of known proteins. While examples such as ASNSD1-uORF in medulloblastoma and humanin in stress and ageing support biological relevance, some candidates are found on tumor-cell surfaces as possible immune-recognition targets, yet most remain unvalidated; ribosome profiling can generate many putative false positives, and experts estimate only a few hundred peptideins may ultimately prove important.

Source: The human genome encodes for a new category of molecule

Subtitle: They may be useful targets for future drugs

Dateline: 5月 07, 2026 06:29 上午