Chrysoula-Evangelia Karachaliou, Hubert Kalbacher, Wolfgang Voelter, Ourania E. Tsitsilonis and Evangelia Livaniou* Pages 4840 - 4854 ( 15 )
Prothymosin alpha (ProTα) is a highly acidic polypeptide, ubiquitously expressed in almost all mammalian cells and tissues and consisting of 109 amino acids in humans. ProTα is known to act both, intracellularly, as an anti-apoptotic and proliferation mediator, and extracellularly, as a biologic response modifier mediating immune responses similar to molecules termed as “alarmins”. Antibodies and immunochemical techniques for ProTα have played a leading role in the investigation of the biological role of ProTα, several aspects of which still remain unknown and contributed to unraveling the diagnostic and therapeutic potential of the polypeptide. This review deals with the so far reported antibodies along with the related immunodetection methodology for ProTα (immunoassays as well as immunohistochemical, immunocytological, immunoblotting, and immunoprecipitation techniques) and its application to biological samples of interest (tissue extracts and sections, cells, cell lysates and cell culture supernatants, body fluids), in health and disease states. In this context, literature information is critically discussed, and some concluding remarks are presented.
Prothymosin alpha, antibodies, immunodetection, immunoassay, immunohistochemistry, immunocytology, immunoblotting, disease biomarker.
Institute of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences and Technology, Energy & Safety (INRASTES), National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, 15310 Agia Paraskevi, Athens, Interfaculty Institute of Biochemistry, University of Tuebingen, 72076 Tuebingen, Interfaculty Institute of Biochemistry, University of Tuebingen, 72076 Tuebingen, Department of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15701 Athens, Institute of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences and Technology, Energy & Safety (INRASTES), National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, 15310 Agia Paraskevi, Athens