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Dickkopf-related protein 3 (DKK3) belongs to the DKK protein family including Dkk-1, 2, 3 and -4. DKK3 is a 350 amino acid secreted glycoprotein which is comprised of an N-terminal signal peptide and 2 conserved cysteine-rich domains that are separated by a 12 amino acid linker region. DKK3 is involved in embryonic development through its inhibition of the WNT signaling pathway. DKK3 gene expression is decreased in a variety of cancer cell lines and it may act as a tumor suppressor gene.

Ectodysplasin A Receptor, also known as EDAR belongs to the tumor necrosis factor receptor family. EDAR is a receptor for the soluble ligand ectodysplasin A, and is capable of activating the nuclear factor-kappaB, JNK, as well as caspase-independent cell death pathways. EDAR is necessary for the development of hair, teeth, and other ectodermal derivatives. Furthermore, mutations in EDAR resulted in autosomal dominant and recessive forms of hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia.

EPO is a member of the EPO/TPO family and encodes a secreted, glycosylated cytokine composed of 4 alpha helical bundles. EPO is found in the plasma and regulates red cell production by promoting erythroid differentiation and initiating hemoglobin synthesis. EPO also has neuroprotective activity against a variety of potential brain injuries and antiapoptotic functions in several tissue types.

A 16kDa 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.

Streptavidin is a tetrameric protein secreted by Streptomyces avidinii which binds firmly to biotin. Streptavidin is widely used in molecular biology through its unique high affinity for the vitamin biotin. The dissociation constant (Kd) of the biotin-streptavidin complex is about ~10-15 mol/L. The strong affinity recognition of biotin and biotinylated molecules has made streptavidin one of the most important components in diagnostics and laboratory kits. The streptavidin/biotin system has one of the biggest free energies of association of yet observed for noncovalent binding of a protein and small ligand in aqueous solution (K_assoc = 10**14). The complexes are also extremely stable over a wide range of temperature and pH.

Mesoderm development candidate 2 (MESDC2) is required for formation of the primitive streak and mesoderm during embryogenesis. MESDC2 binds to the Wnt co-receptors LRP5 and LRP6 in the endoplasmic reticulum and is required for their proper folding and cell surface expression.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF R) subfamily of receptor tyrosine kinases comprises four members: EGF R (also known as HER1, ErbB1 or ErbB), ErbB2 (Neu, HER-2), ErbB3 (HER-3), and ErbB4 (HER-4). All family members are type I transmembrane glycoprotein that has an extracellular domain which contains two cysteine-rich domains separated by a spacer region that is involved in ligand-binding, and a cytoplasmic domain which has a membrane-proximal tyrosine kinase domain and a C-terminal tail with multiple tyrosine autophosphorylation sites. The human EGF R gene encodes a 1210 amino acid (aa) residue precursor with a 24 aa putative signal peptide, a 621 aa extracellular domain, a 23 aa transmembrane domain, and a 542 aa cytoplasmic domain. EGF R has been shown to bind a subset of the EGF family ligands, including EGF, amphiregulin, TGF-a , betacellulin, epiregulin, heparin-binding EGF and neuregulin-2 in the absence of a co-receptor. Ligand binding induces EGF R homodimerization as well as heterdimerization with ErbB2, resulting in kinase activation, tyrosine phosphorylation and cell signaling. EGF R can also be recruited to form heterodimers with the ligand-activated ErbB3 or ErbB4. EGF R signaling has been shown to regulate multiple biological functions including cell proliferation, differentiation, motility and apoptosis. In addition, EGF R signaling has also been shown to play a role in carcinogenesis.

INHBC, the beta C chain of inhibin, belongs to the TGF-beta superfamily. INHBC formulates heterodimers with beta A and beta B subunits. Other members of the TGF-beta superfamily are Actv's and Inhibins, hormones with contradictory roles which take part in pituitary, hypothalamic, and gonadal hormone secretion, as well as differentiation and growth of numerous cell types.

Prolactin inducible protein (PIP) is a 17kDa glycoprotein existing in human seminal plasma. PIP is synthesized as a 146 amino acid long polypeptide exhibiting high sequence similarity with mouse submaxillary gland with a single glycosylation site. The precise biological functions of PIP are still ambiguous but various functions have been assigned to PIP due its existence at high concentration in biological fluids. PIP binds to various proteins such as fibrinogen, actin, keratin, myosin and tropomyosin. PIP is also expressed in pathological conditions of the mammary gland and in some exocrine tissues, such as the lacrimal, salivary and sweat glands. Due to PIP’s association with secretory cell differentiation, it has been used in diagnostic evaluation of tumors of breast, salivary gland, and skin.

ITGB4 (integrin beta-4 isoform 1) belongs to the Integrin beta family. ITGB4 forms noncovalent heterodimers with Integrin alpha 6 and takes part in the formation of epithelial hemidesmosomes. ITGB4 has a vital structural role in the hemidesmosome of epithelial cells and is needed for the regulation of keratinocyte motility & polarity. ITGB4 leans towards the association with alpha 6 subunit and is expected to take a key role in the biology of invasive carcinoma.

MDS1 is a transcriptional regulator and oncoprotein which takes part in hematopoiesis, development, cell differentiation, apoptosis and proliferation. MDS1 is able to interact with CTBP1, SMAD3, CREBBP, KAT2B, MAPK8, and MAPK9. Overexpression, as a result of translocation with the AML1 gene, is known to cause leukemia. A number of transcript variants encoding several different isoforms were found.

Though the exact role of MMACHC is unknown, its C-terminal region shows similarity to TonB, which is a bacterial protein involved in energy transduction for cobalamin (vitamin B12) uptake. Therefore, it is suggested that MMACHC may have a role in the binding and intracellular trafficking of cobalamin. MMACHC mutations are linked with methylmalonic aciduria and homocystinuria type cblC. MMACHC is widely expressed, it is expressed at higher level in the fetal liver, however it is also expressed in the spleen, lymph node, thymus and bone marrow. MMACHC is weakly or not expressed in the peripheral blood leukocytes.

Dendritic cell and monocyte chemokinelike protein (DMC/CXCL17/VEGF-correlated chemokine 1/VCC1), is a secreted molecule with a size and predicted 3-dimensional folding pattern similar to that of chemokines CXCL8/IL8 and CXCL14/BRAK. CXCL17 is constitutively generated by airway and intestinal epithelium. CXCL17 induces the chemotaxis of quiescent, but not LPS-activated peripheral blood monocytes and dendritic cells, and it also binds these cells specifically. The expression of CXCL17 is increased in endothelial cells when they are induced to form tubes in vitro. CXCL17, CXCL1/GRO and CXCL8/IL8 which have roles in angiogenesis, show significantly correlated expression with that of VEGF in primary lung, breast and esophageal tumors. Therefore, CXCL17 is suggested to have a role in tumor angiogenesis. The mature Rat CXCL17 shares 82%, 71% amino acid sequence identity with mouse, human CXCL17, respectively.

Hematopoietic Prostaglandin D Synthase (HPGDS) belongs to the sigma class glutathione-S-transferase family. The HPGDS enzyme catalyzes the conversion of PGH2 to PGD2 and has a role in the production of prostanoids in the immune system and mast cells. The presence of the HPGDS enzyme can be utilized to identify the differentiation stage of human megakaryocytes. Furthermore, HPGDS is a prostaglandin involved in smooth muscle contraction/relaxation and an effective inhibitor of platelet aggregation, and the conjugation of glutathione with a extensive range of aryl halides and organic isothiocyanates. In addition, HPGDS displays low glutathione-peroxidase activity towards cumene hydroperoxide. HPGDS is expressed in a number of megakaryocytic cell lines but not in platelets. HPGDS is highly expressed in the adipose tissue, macrophages and placenta; however it is expressed at lower levels in the lung, heart, lymph nodes, appendix, bone marrow and fetal liver.

Dickkopf-related protein 3 (DKK3) belongs to the DKK protein family including Dkk-1, 2, 3 and -4. DKK3 is a 350 amino acid secreted glycoprotein which is comprised of an N-terminal signal peptide and 2 conserved cysteine-rich domains that are separated by a 12 amino acid linker region. DKK3 is involved in embryonic development through its inhibition of the WNT signaling pathway. DKK3 gene expression is decreased in a variety of cancer cell lines and it may act as a tumor suppressor gene.

EDA2R (ectodysplasin A2 receptor) mediates the activation of the NF-kappa-B and JNK pathways. Activation seems to be mediated through binding to TRAF3 and TRAF6. In addition, Mutations in EDA give rise to a clinical syndrome characterized by loss of hair, sweat glands, and teeth. EDA2R specifically binds to EDA-A2 isoform. This protein is a type III transmembrane protein of the TNFR (tumor necrosis factor receptor) superfamily, and contains 3 cysteine-rich repeats and a single transmembrane domain however it lacks an N-terminal signal peptide. Alternatively spliced transcript variants have been found for this gene. Among the diseases associated with EDA2R are ectodermal dysplasia 1, hypohidrotic, x-linked, and hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia.

O-Sialoglycoprotein Endopeptidase, also known as OSGEP is a member of the KAE1 / TsaD family. OSGEP is essential for the formation of threonylcarbamoyl group on adenosine at position 37 (t6A37) in tRNAs which read codons beginning with adenine. OSGEP take a direct catalytic part in the above reaction, however other proteins of the complex are required to fulfill this activity.

Inhibins are dimeric peptide hormones produced by female ovarian granulose cells and male Sertoli cells as well as a variety of other tissues. Inhibins have two isoforms, A and B, with the same alpha subunit but different beta subunits. Inhibin A is a dimer of alpha and beta A subunits, inhibin B is a dimer of alpha and beta B subunits.
Inhibins are thought to inhibit the production of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) by the pituitary gland. In addition, Inhibins are also thought to play a role in the control of gametogenesis, and embryonic and fetal development.

PIM1, which is a part of the Ser/Thr protein kinase family and PIM subfamily, is expressed primarily in B-lymphoid and myeloid cell lines, and is overexpressed in hematopoietic malignancies and in prostate cancer. PIM1 functions as Proto-oncogene with serine/threonine kinase activity involved in cell survival and cell proliferation, consequently providing a selective advantage in tumorigenesis. Both human and orthologous mouse genes have been reported to encode two isoforms resulting from the use of alternative in-frame translation initiation codons, the upstream non-AUG (CUG) and downstream AUG codons.

Thiamin pyrophosphokinase 1 (TPK1) is a homodimer which catalyzes the phosphorylation of thiamine to thiamine pyrophosphate. TPK1 is found in the heart, kidney, testis, small intestine and peripheral blood leukocytes, and at very low levels in a variety of tissues. TPK1 gene defects cause the thiamine metabolism dysfunction syndrome type 5, episodic encephalopathy type (THMD5), which is an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder due to an inborn error of thiamine metabolism.

Latexin enzyme is a carboxypeptidase A inhibitor that is highly expressed in the heart, prostate, ovary, kidney, pancrease, brain and colon. Latexin has no noticeable sequence resemblance with plant and parasite inhibitors, however it is related to a human putative tumor suppressor protein, TIG1. Latexin is down-regulated in the presenilin-1-deficient mouse brain, thus putatively playing a role in Alzheimer's disease.

RAET1E is a member of the MHC class I family. MHC class I family contains main histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-related genes positioned in a cluster on chromosome 6q24.2-q25.3. RAET1E and RAET1G protein are different from other RAET1 proteins since they have type I membrane-spanning sequences at their C termini instead glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor sequences.RAET1E acts as a ligand for NKG2D receptor, expressed on the surface of numerous types of immune cells, involves in innate adaptive immune reactions.RAET1E delivers signals to NK cells and advances tumor immune surveillance by inducing the growth of anti-tumor cytotoxic lymphocyte.