Role of protein deimination in cardiovascular diseases: potential new avenues for diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers.

PAD is an unique family of enzymes that permanently converts amino acid arginine to amino acid citrulline in protein . Overexpression or increased activity of PAD has been observed in various CVDs with acute and chronic inflammation as the background. Importantly, far beyond being simply involved in forming neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), accumulating evidence indicated PAD activation as a trigger for numerous processes, such as transcriptional regulation, endothelial dysfunction, and thrombus formation. In summary, the findings so far have testified the important role of deimination in cardiovascular biology, while more basic and translational studies are essential for further exploration.