Dihydrofolate reductase family
dihydrofolate reductase family
Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) activity is an important enzymatic function that resides within the one carbon metabolism (OCM) pathway. Its central role in cellular metabolism in support of cell division and proliferation has made DHFR an attractive and successful drug target. Methotrexate is a direct inhibitor of DHFR. There are two human genes capable of encoding dihydrofolate reductase: intron-containing DHFR and a retrogene, DHFR2, which shares 92% amino acid sequence identity with DHFR. Although DHFR2 is transcribed, targeted proteomics analysis found only a low abundance of translated protein in human embryonic heart and no evidence of DHFR2 protein in adult cells. DHFR2 functionality may lie at the RNA level.