Search results

EPHA2 is a member of the ephrin receptor subfamily of the protein-tyrosine kinase family. EPH and EPH-related receptors are implicated in mediating developmental events, particularly in the nervous system. Receptors in the EPH subfamily typically have a single kinase domain and an extracellular region containing a Cys-rich domain and 2 fibronectin type III repeats. The ephrin receptors are divided into two groups based on the similarity of their extracellular domain sequences and their affinities for binding ephrin-A and ephrin-B ligands. The EPHA2 gene encodes a protein that binds ephrin-A ligands. Mutations in the EPHA2 gene are the origin of certain genetically-related cataract disorders.

Synaptobrevin 1(Vehicle-associated membrane, VAMP1) is one of the key proteins in the SNARE complex which is involved in regulated exocytosis. Synaptobrevin1 binds to t-SNAREs, syntaxin (STX) and SNAP25, after the fusion of synaptic vesicles to plasma membrane.

ACP1 is part of the phosphotyrosine protein. ACP1 functions as an acid phosphatase and a protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase) existing in all human tissues, including adipocytes. ACP1 enzyme hydrolyzes protein tyrosine phosphate to protein tyrosine and orthophosphate, and also orthophosphoric monoesters to alcohol and orthophosphate. ACP1 is present in adipocytes, thus playing a specific role in the regulation of adipose tissue. High levels of the ACP1 negatively regulate cell proliferation and growth of leiomyomas during dephosphorylation of the PDGF receptor. High significant differences in birth weight-placental weight relationships were observed among acid phosphatase locus 1 phenotypes.

Hexokinases phosphorylate glucose to produce glucose-6-phosphate, thus committing glucose to the glycolytic pathway. Alternative splicing of Glucokinase results in three tissue-specific forms of glucokinase, one found in pancreatic islet beta cells and two found in liver. The protein localizes to the outer membrane of mitochondria. In contrast to other forms of hexokinase, HK4 is not inhibited by its product glucose-6-phosphate but remains active while glucose is abundant. Mutations in this gene have been associated with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), maturity onset diabetes of the young, type 2 (MODY2) and persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia of infancy (PHHI).

A 16-kDa peptide hormone secreted from white adipocytes and implicated in the regulation of food intake and energy balance. Leptin provides the key afferent signal from fat cells in the feedback system that controls body fat stores.

Caused by one of four closely related virus serotypes of the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae, each serotype is sufficiently different that there is no cross-protection and epidemics caused by multiple serotypes (hyperendemicity) can occur. In cell culture experiments and mice Morpholino antisense oligos have shown specific activity against Dengue virus.

Tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 8 (TNFRSF8) is a receptor for TNFSF8/CD30L. TNFRSF8 has a role in the regulation of cellular growth and transformation of activated lymphoblasts. In addition, the TNFRSF8 protein regulates gene expression via activation of NF-kappa-B. TNFRSF8 being a regulator of apoptosis, induces cell death or proliferation, depending on the cell type.

Rat IL-17A/F is a glycoprotein which is secreted as a disulfide-linked heterodimer. IL-17A/F consists of two proteins of the IL-17 family, IL-17A and IL17F. Proteins of the 6 homodimeric IL17 family show a cysteine knot motif that contains two disulfide-bonds. Rat IL17A is produced as a 155 a.a precursor that includes a 23 amino acids signal sequence and a 132 amino acid chain that includes an N-linked glycosylation site. Rat IL17F is produced as a 153 amino acid precursor with a 20 amino acid signal sequence and a 133 amino acid region. Similar to IL17A, IL17F also has an N-linked glycosylation site. Both proteins (IL17A & IL17F) share 50% amino acid sequence identity. Human IL17A & IL17F show approximately 60% homology in their amino acid sequence to mouse IL-17A and IL-17F. Interleukin-17A/F and IL17A, IL17F homodimers are manufactured by activted CD4+ T cells, called Th17. IL-23 causes Th17 lymphocytes to manufacture IL-17A/F. IL17RA and IL17RC form a heterodimer for the binding of IL17A and IL17F. IL-17A/F binds IL-17RA. Interleukin-17A/F induces chemokine production and airway neutrophilia with intermediate potency between IL17A (most potent) and IL17F (least potent).

S100A7A takes part in epidermal differentiation and inflammation thus is significant for the pathogenesis of psoriasis and other diseases.

ENO1 is a homodimeric soluble protein that encodes a smaller monomeric structural lens protein, tau-crystallin. ENO1 is a glycolytic enzyme expressed in mainly all tissues. ENO1 isoenzyme full length protein is found in the cytoplasm. The shorter protein is formed from another translation start that is restricted to the nucleus, and binds to a component in the c-myc promoter. ENO1 is involved in anaerobic metabolism under hypoxic conditions and plays a role as a cell surface plasminogen receptor during tissue invasion. Irregular expression of Enolase-1 is linked with tumor progression in several cases of breast and lung cancer. Enolase-1 is as an auto antigen associated with Hashimoto's encephalopathy and severe asthma. ENO1 is the target protein of serum anti-endothelial antibody in Behcet's disease.

Bcl-2–associated X protein (Bax) belongs to the Bcl-2 protein family.
Bax is a pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein containing BH1, BH2 and BH3 domains.
Bax accelerates programmed cell death by binding to, and antagonizing the apoptosis repressor bcl2 or its adenovirus homolog e1b 19k protein. Bax induces the release of cytochrome c, activation of casp3, and thereby apoptosis. Bax is expressed in a wide variety of tissues, with highest levels in the testis and ovary.
Tumor suppressor protein p53 upregulates the expression of BAX. Bax has been shown to be involved in p53-mediated apoptosis.

TGFB1-induced anti-apoptotic factor 1 (TIAF1) hinders the cytotoxic effects of TNF-alpha and overexpressed TNF receptor adapters TRADD, FADD, and RIPK1. The TIAF1 protein is involved in TGF-beta1 inhibition of IkappaB-alpha expression and suppression of TNF-mediated IkappaB-alpha degradation. TIAF1 is not detected in normal kidney and liver. TIAF1 is up-regulated in chronic and acute allograft rejection: expressed in the inflammatory infiltrate and in tubular epithelial cells.

Neurotrophic Receptor Tyrosine Kinase 3 (NTRK3)belongs to the receptor tyrosine kinases family and is a high affinity catalytic receptor of neurotrophin NT-3. NTRK3 mediates multiple effects of this neurotrophic factor, which includes neuronal differentiation and survival. NTRK3 inducesvarious pleiotorpic responses in malignant cells, including enhanced tumor cell invasiveness and chemotoxis.Increased NTRK3 expression was observed in neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma, and in neuroectodermal brain tumors.

Interleukin-1 ra is a member of the interleukin 1 cytokine family. This protein inhibits the activities of interleukin 1, alpha (IL1A) and interleukin 1, beta (IL1B), and modulates a variety of interleukin 1 related immune and inflammatory responses. This gene and five other closely related cytokine genes form a gene cluster spanning approximately 400 kb on chromosome 2. A polymorphism of this gene is reported to be associated with increased risk of osteoporotic fractures and gastric cancer. Four alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been reported.

IL4 is a pleiotropic cytokine produced by activated T cells. IL4 is a ligand for interleukin 4 receptor. The interleukin 4 receptor also binds to IL13, which may contribute to many overlapping functions of this cytokine and IL13. STAT6, a signal transducer and activator of transcription, has been shown to play a central role in mediating the immune regulatory signal of this cytokine. This gene, IL3, IL5, IL13, and CSF2 form a cytokine gene cluster on chromosome 5q, with this gene particularly close to IL13. IL4, IL13 and IL5 are found to be regulated coordinately by several long-range regulatory elements in an over 120 kilobase range on the chromosome. Two alternatively spliced transcript variants of this gene encoding distinct isoforms have been reported.

Prolactin is a pituitary hormone that plays a role in the stimulation of milk production, salt and water regulation, growth, development and reproduction. The primary step in its action is the binding to a specific membrane receptor (prolactin receptor) which belongs to the superfamily of class 1 cytokine receptors. Prolactin is a hormone involved in a range of significant functions including ion transport and osmoregulation, stimulation of milk, protein synthesis as well as the regulation of numerous reproductive functions. Prolactin exerts its influence on different cell types through a signal transduction pathway which begins with the binding of the hormone to a transmembrane Prolactin receptor. PRLR varies in size (short and long forms) with tissue source and species, from ~40 kDa to 100 kDa. The PRL-R consists of at least 3 separate domains: an extracellular region with 5 cysteines which contains the prolactin binding site, a single transmembrane domain and a cytoplasmic region, the length of which appears to influence ligand binding and regulate cellular function.

C1QBP binds to the globular "heads" of c1q thus inhibiting c1 activation. C1QBP interacts with a wide range of ligands and is implicated in cell signaling. C1QBP associates with C1r and C1s in order to yield the first component of the serum complement system. C1QBP protein has been identified as the p32 subunit of pre-mRNA splicing factor SF2, as well as a hyaluronic acid-binding protein.
C1QBP is a new marker of tumor cells and tumor-associated macrophages/myeloid cells in hypoxic/metabolically deprived areas of tumors.
Mitochondrial C1QBP is a critical mediator of p14ARF-induced apoptosis.
C1QBP functions as a chemotactic factor for immature dendritic cells, and migration is mediated through ligation of both C1QBP and cC1qR/CR.
C1QBP overexpression successfully blocks mRNA accumulation from the adenovirus major late transcription unit (MLTU) and stimulates RNA polymerase II carboxy-terminal domain phosphorylation in virus-infected cells.
C1QBP binds with Hepacivirus core protein on CD8+ and CD4+ positive t-cells and inactivates lck and akt.

LAMTOR2 is a member of the GAMAD family. LAMTOR2 is highly conserved with a mouse protein linked with the cytoplasmic face of late endosomes and lysosomes. The mouse protein interacts with MAPK scaffold protein 1, which is a component of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. LAMTOR2 gene mutation has been associated with a primary immunodeficiency syndrome in humans, proposing a role for this protein in endosomal biogenesis.

TRAIL Receptor-3, also known as TNFRSF10C belongs to theTNF-receptor super family. TNFRSF10C contains an extracellular TRAIL-binding domain as well as a transmembranedomain, however no cytoplasmic death domain. Furthermore, TNFRSF10C is not capable of inducing apoptosis, and is considered toact as an antagonistic receptor which protects cells from TRAIL-induced apoptosis.

HMGB2 belongs to the non-histone chromosomal high-mobility group protein family which are chromatin-associated and highly spread in the nucleus of higher eukaryotic cells. HMGB2 can successfully bend DNA and form DNA circles which indicates that HMGB2 facilitates cooperative interactions between cis-acting proteins by promoting DNA flexibility. Additionally, HMGB2 takes part in the final ligation step in DNA end-joining processes of DNA double-strand breaks repair and V(D)J recombination.

The secreted polypeptide noggin, encoded by the NOG gene, binds and inactivates members of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) superfamily signaling proteins, such as bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP4). By diffusing through extracellular matrices more efficiently than members of the TGF-beta superfamily, noggin may have a principal role in creating morphogenic gradients. Noggin appears to have pleiotropic effect, both early in development as well as in later stages. It was originally isolated from Xenopus based on its ability to restore normal dorsal-ventral body axis in embryos that had been artificially ventralized by UV treatment. The results of the mouse knockout of noggin suggest that it is involved in numerous developmental processes, such as neural tube fusion and joint formation. Recently, several dominant human NOG mutations in unrelated families with proximal symphalangism (SYM1) and multiple synostoses syndrome (SYNS1) were identified; both SYM1 and SYNS1 have multiple joint fusion as their principal feature, and map to the same region (17q22) as NOG. All NOG mutations altered evolutionarily conserved amino acid residues. The amino acid sequence of human noggin is highly homologous to that of Xenopus, rat and mouse.

EIF5A is the single protein identified to contain remarkable amino acid formed by the action of deoxyhypusine synthase and deoxyhypusine hydroxylase using spermidine as the substrate. EIF5A takes part in the first step of peptide bond formation in translation, nevertheless further experiments implicates it as a universally conserved translation elongation factor. Modulation of EIF5A is connected to proliferation and cancer. Expression of EIF-5A is upregulated in the PBMCs of HIV-1 patients. EIF5A coordinates significant cellular processes like cell viability and senescence during its effects on the stability of certain mRNAs. Heat stress-induced loss of EIF-5A in a human pancreatic cancer cell line. EIF5A stability takes part in determining the fate of the particular cell type after severe heat stress.

GLOD4 is a part of the glyoxalase system which is a group of enzymes that is in charge of the detoxification of methylglyoxal and other reactive aldehydes that are usually produced in metabolism. The mitochondrial protein GLOD4 is known to interact with NUDT9.

Otubain 1 (OTUB1) belongs to the ovarian tumor (OUT) superfamily of predicted cysteine proteases and inhibits cytokine gene transcription in the immune system through its interaction with a ubiquitin protease and E3 ubiquitin ligase. OTUB1 is a highly specific ubiquitin iso-peptidase, it cleaves ubiquitin from branched poly-ubiquitin chains but not from ubiquitinated substrates. OTUB1 is believed to work in specific ubiquitin-dependent pathways, possibly by providing an editing function of polyubiquitin chain growth. OTUB1 is a hydrolase that removes conjugated ubiquitin from proteins in vitro and may therefore have a significant regulatory role in the level of protein turnover by preventing degradation. Additionally, OTUB1 is a regulator of T-cell anergy, a phenomenon that occurs when T-cells are rendered impassive to antigen re-challenge and no longer respond to their cognate antigen. OTUB1 acts via its interaction with RNF128/GRAIL, which is an essential inductor of CD4 T-cell anergy.