The cystatins are a family of cysteineproteaseinhibitors which share a sequence homology and a common tertiary structure of an alpha helix lying on top of an anti-parallel beta sheet. The family is subdivided as described below.
Cystatins show similarity to fetuins, kininogens, histidine-rich glycoproteins and cystatin-related proteins.[2][3][4]
Cystatins mainly inhibit peptidase enzymes (another term for proteases) belonging to peptidase families C1 (papain family) and C13 (legumain family). They are known to mis-fold to form amyloid deposits and are implicated in several diseases.[citation needed]
^Abrahamson M, Alvarez-Fernandez M, Nathanson CM (2003). "Cystatins". Biochemical Society Symposium. 70 (70): 179–199. doi:10.1042/bss0700179. PMID14587292.