Human erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase in health and disease

© 2017 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).The biochemical properties of erythrocyte or human red blood cell (RBC) membrane acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and its applications on laboratory class and on research are reviewed. Evidence of the biochemical and the pathophysiological properties like the association between the RBC AChE enzyme activity and the clinical and biophysical parameters implicated in several diseases are overviewed, and the achievement of RBC AChE as a biomarker and as a prognostic factor are presented. Beyond its function as an enzyme, a special focus is highlighted in this review for a new function of the RBC AChE, namely a component of the signal transduction pathway of nitric oxide.This work was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia: LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-007391, project cofunded by FEDER, through POR Lisboa 2020—Programa Operacional Regional de Lisboa, PORTUGAL 2020.