Thioredoxin

Thioredoxins are proteins that act as antioxidants by facilitating the reduction of other proteins by cysteine thiol-disulfide exchange. Thioredoxins are found in nearly all known organisms and are essential for life in mammals.

Thioredoxins are characterized at the level of their amino acid sequence by the presence of two vicinal cysteines in a CXXC motif. These two cysteines are the key to the ability of thioredoxin to reduce other proteins. Thioredoxin proteins also have a characteristic tertiary structure termed the thioredoxin fold.

The thioredoxins are kept in the reduced state by the flavoenzyme thioredoxin reductase, in a NADPH-dependent reaction. Thioredoxins act as electron donors to peroxidases and ribonucleotide reductase. The related glutaredoxins share many of the functions of thioredoxins, but are reduced by glutathione rather than a specific reductase.