Cancer

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.

There are two opposing sides to the controversial cysteine/glutamate antiporter. On one hand, it can be viewed a guardian of the cell, protecting it from the damaging oxidative stress that can cause cell death and even cancer. But, conversely, it has a dark side, actually facilitating cancer in a number of ways.

Acromegaly is a rare life-shortening disease caused by elevated levels of growth hormone (GH) secreted by a tumor on the pituitary gland. Treatments include somatostatin analogs, which activate somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR2), reducing GH secretion and tumor size.

Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) is a protein encoded by TLR9 gene in humans. It is also known as cluster of differentiation 289 (CD289) and is a member of TLR family.

Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) is a protein encoded by the TLR7 gene in humans and is a member of TLR family. TLRs controls host immune response against pathogens (e.g. viruses, bacteria and fungi) through recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) which are specific to the microorganisms.

RAD51 is a recombinase protein encoded by RAD51 gene in humans. Human RAD51 family members are highly similar to bacterial RecA and yeast Rad51, both biochemically and structurally. It is a 339-amino acid protein that plays an important role in homologous recombination (HR) of DNA during double-strand break (DSB) repair.

 Ovarian carcinoma is disease that eludes early diagnosis and has a high mortality rate. In a diagnosis of ovarian carcinoma, one of the most common problems is to distinguish between a primary ovarian and colorectal adenocarcinoma (1).

O-linked beta-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) is a sugar attachment to serine or threonine hydroxyl moieties on nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins. O-GlcNAc modified proteins are generally either cytoplasmic or nuclear proteins, and unlike asparagine-linked or mucin-type O-glycosylation, O-GlcNAc is not further processed into a complex oligosaccharide.

CDR2 is a tumor antigen expressed in a high percentage of breast and ovarian tumors and is the target of a naturally occurring tumor immune response in patients with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration.

SOX2 is a transcription factor that is expressed by self-renewing and multipotent stem cells of the embryonic neuroepithelium. Sox-2 was found to be expressed by dividing neural progenitor cells. Constitutive expression of SOX2 has also been shown to inhibit neuronal differentiation and results in the maintenance of progenitor characteristics.