Ubiquitin Specific Peptidase 43 (USP43)

It was possible to demonstrate the key importance of USP43 in experiments involving mice that were lacking USP43.The most plausible explanation for this seemed to be that the damage occurred because USP43 is no longer able to fulfil its balancing function. Knobeloch and his team tested this hypothesis by breeding mouse strains which, in addition to lacking USP43, were also unable to produce ISG15. Such animals would be able to balance out the surplus of modified proteins and that the disorders would disappear. However, this was not the case at all. The mice still displayed brain anomalies and died very quickly. USP43 had an important role in switching off interferon signals, thereby interfering with the molecular communication networks of immune cells and their target structures