Antibody News

Expression of transgenes in complex organisms is accompanied by the need for a specific and sensitive detection of a target protein. One familiar approach is the use of a protein-specific antibody. However, antibodies raised against to your protein of interest may not always be available, are often costly or time-consuming to produce, and are usually not target specific (1). Moreover antibodies are often not suitable for several applications and immunohistochemical detection is a frequent bottleneck. These drawbacks can be overcome by the use of epitope tagging.

WB analysis of V5 tagged protein.

The fusion of an immunoreactive...

 Tyrosine hydroxylase catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of the catecholamines dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. A hallmark of Parkinson's disease is the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Mutations in cases of autosomal recessive dopa-responsive dystonia and infantile Parkinsonism have also been identified recently. TH deficiency is also known to be associated with a broad phenotypic spectrum ranging from TH-deficient dopa-responsive dystonia at the mild end to a levodopa-unresponsive infantile Parkinsonism or progressive infantile encephalopathy phenotype. These infants are more difficult to treat and unusually prone to side effects (dyskinesias and gastrointestinal side effects) of levodopa therapy (1).

Gap junctions consist of Connexins (Cx), a family of proteins that form channels linking the cytoplasm of adjacent cells. All Connexin molecules have four membrane-spanning domains, two extracellular domains, and a cytoplasmic carboxy-terminal tail of varying length that has an important role in the regulation of the gating properties of the channel. Interestingly Connexin 43 also known as gap junction alpha-1 protein is one of the most abundant gap-junction protein. Several studies have documented using immunoblotting of cell lysates that at least three Connexin 43-specific bands. While bands P1 and P2 are phosphorylated on multiple, unidentified serine residues in gap-junction plaques using anti-Connexin 43 antibodies. Immunofloresecence studies using a monoclonal antibody against the 23 residues at the C-terminus of connexin 43 bound...

Cells of the human body defend themselves against viral infection, but faults in this system could make some people susceptible to suffering particularly bad flu. IFITM3 (interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3) is an antiviral protein that has recently appeared in the news because a defective variant has been associated with an increased risk of severe influenza, with particular significance within the Chinese population.

Zhang et al. analyzed the occurrence and effect of the SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) rs12252-C in Chinese patients with influenza A virus infection during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. This SNP, which causes a truncation of the IFITM3 protein, had previously been linked to influenza disease severity in Northern Europeans, but in that...

The Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP1) is a member of the C-C chemokine family, and a potent chemotactic factor for monocytes. MCP-1 is of particular relevance to cancer invasion and metastasis as it is over-expressed in a variety of cancer types, including glioma, ovarian, lung, breast and prostate cancers (1). MCP1-mediated macrophage infiltration is known to promote tumor progression in various cancers, as MCP1 is known to play a crucial role in tumor tissue inflammatory response by activating and inducing the infiltration of macrophages and regulating adhesion factors (2).

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Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease affects 3% of the United Kingdom's population and 7.5 million people in the United States are affected. This disease causes plaque formation on the skin due to an increased rate of skin cell growth. Psoriasis is triggered by environmental factors such as alcohol and stress, throat infections, injuries and other immune disorders. There are five types of psoriasis however plaque psoriasis is one of the most common. The first gene linked to plaque psoriasis has been identified by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The team of researchers found that rare mutations in the CARD14 gene, when activated by an environmental...

As the hormone ghrelin is linked to appetite and weight gain, as well as impaired glucose-induced insulin secretion, there is considerable interest in this peptide as a potential drug target. Although the overall lack of success in this field has been disappointing, research inhibiting the ghrelin-modifying enzyme GOAT (MBOAT4) has produced promising results.

Ghrelin is a peptide hormone secreted by the stomach. Though first described as the ligand of the growth hormone secretagogue receptor, ghrelin has gained notoriety since it was found that circulating ghrelin levels rise then fall before and after a meal respectively, and that it stimulates appetite and weight gain. Targeting the ghrelin system could therefore be a way to treat or prevent obesity. Obese people actually have low circulating ghrelin, but it has been shown that in these individuals the suppression of...

Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) variously abbreviated as BrdU, BudR, and BrdUrd, is a synthetic thymidine analog that gets incorporated into the DNA of dividing cells during the S-phase of the cell cycle and has a long history of heavy use in molecular and cytokinetic studies (1). Due to its ability to substitute itself to T base, BrdU has 2 major applications: visualization of genomic DNA degradation during cell death (apoptosis) and monitoring of the level of proliferation and cell division. Here, we will focus on the second application based on the usage of an anti-BrdU antibody.

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HA95 is a nuclear protein with high homology to the nuclear A-kinase anchoring protein AKAP95, involved in the regulation of nuclear envelope-chromatin interactions. Antibody immunostaining data indicate that HA95 is tightly associated with chromatin and the nuclear matrix/lamina network in interphase, and bound to chromatin at mitosis. Intra-nuclear blocking with anti-HA95 antibodies abolishes nuclear breakdown in a mitotic HeLa cell extracts by inhibiting nuclear membrane breakdown and chromatin condensation (1).

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Synaptonemal Complex Protein 1 (SCP1) is a novel tumor antigen that belongs to the growing family of cancer/testis antigens (CTA). SCP-1 is known to be selectively expressed during the meiotic prophase of spermatocytes and is involved in the pairing of homologous chromosomes during meiosis I. Investigation of a broad spectrum of normal and malignant tissues revealed that expression of SCP-1 transcripts and antigen selectively in a variety of neoplastic tissues and tumor cell lines.

ICC/IC analysis of SCP1 in mouse pachytene preparation.

Immunofluorescence with specific antiserum demonstrated a...

The luciferase reporter is a valuable tool for research into physiology and disease. Light emitted from luciferase enables the monitoring of xenografted tumors, specific cell types, gene expression and pathogens within live animals over time using bioluminescence imaging (BLI) technology. Further detail can be revealed through the use of luciferase antibodies.

Luciferases are a class of enzymes (produced by a variety of organisms) that generate light by acting on substrates (called luciferins). This is a form of chemiluminescence, where the source of the energy emitted as a photon is a chemical reaction, as opposed to absorption of light as in fluorescence.

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Retinal pigment epithelium-specific 65 kDa protein (RPE65) is an essential vision protein, and so mutations in the RPE65 gene cause blindness. However, clinical trials using gene therapy to treat patients with a defective RPE65 gene suggest that some vision may be restored.

Our eyes detect light via pigments in rod and cone photoreceptor cells. These pigments consist of an opsin protein (a 7-transmembrane, G protein-coupled receptor) with a bound 11-cis retinal chromophore. The 11-cis retinal is the photosensitive component, undergoing photoisomerization to all-trans-retinal. This induces a conformational change in the opsin, activating it and initiating a signal transduction cascade. The 11-cis form of the retinal must be...