S-formylglutathione hydrolase

S-formylglutathione hydrolase (ESD, also known as FGH) is a serine hydrolase that catalyzes the detoxification of formaldehyde (UniProt: P10768). The enzyme plays a role in cellular defense against toxic aldehydes by facilitating their conversion and clearance.

ESD is expressed in human tissues where oxidative metabolism and detoxification processes occur. No explicit disease associations are documented in UniProt records for this enzyme, though its detoxification function suggests potential relevance to conditions involving oxidative stress or metabolic dysfunction.

In Alzheimer's disease, ESD shows consistent upregulation in post-mortem AD brain tissue compared to age-matched controls, with a mean log2 fold-change of +0.63 across subcellular fractions in TMT-labeled proteomics (Chaparral AD proteomics). This elevation may reflect increased cellular stress responses and heightened detoxification demands in AD pathology, though the functional significance of this upregulation remains to be determined.