Current Protein and Peptide Science - Volume 17, Issue 6, 2016

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer for man with a high mortality rate due to a lack of non-invasive accurate and sensitive molecular diagnostic methods. The molecular imaging of cancer biomarkers using MRI with its spatial and temporal resolution, however, is largely limited by the lack of contrast agents with high sensitivity, targeting specificity and deep tumor penetration. In this review, we will first overview th Read More

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) plays important roles in cell proliferation, suppression of apoptosis, increased motility, and recruitment of neovasculature. Overexpressed or mutated EGFR has been an important biomarker for cancer diagnosis and molecular target for many anticancer drugs because it frequently occurs in many common human cancers. Localizing and estimating the expression of EGFR Read More

Neurologic disorders are prevalent diseases in the population and represent a major cause of death and disability. Despite the advances made during recent decades, the early diagnosis of these diseases remains a challenge. Determining the pathophysiology of such disorders is also challenging and is a requirement for the development of new drugs and treatments. Molecular neuroimaging studies can help fill these Read More

Chronic pain is thought to be a brain disease, but the mechanisms are not well-known. In recent years, brain imaging has become an indispensable tool for pain research. For example, nuclear molecular imaging is a safe and noninvasive technology that allows researchers to probe potential brain regions of interest with suitable biomarkers. These studies help us to understand the central mechanisms of chronic pain states in Read More

Integrins have an important impact on the regulation of normal and tumor cell migration and survival, especially the integrin αvβ3 and its role in angiogenesis and tumor metastasis. Owing to the role of integrins, non-invasive imaging of αvβ3 expression in diseased tissue will be of great benefit in directing adjuvant therapy for cancer patients. To this end, RGD peptide based probes for optical imaging have emerged as a r Read More

Molecular imaging is able to directly visualize targets and characterize cellular pathways with a high signal/background ratio, which requires a sufficient amount of agents to uptake and accumulate in the imaging area. The design and development of peptide based agents for imaging and diagnosis as a hot and promising research topic that is booming in the field of molecular imaging. To date, selected peptides have been i Read More

Hydroxyproline is a non-essential amino acid found in collagen and few other extracellular animal proteins. It’s two isomeric forms trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline and trans-3-hydroxy-L-proline play a crucial role in collagen synthesis and thermodynamic stability of the triple-helical conformation of collagen and associated tissues. Various abnormalities in hydroxyproline metabolism have been shown to play key roles in the pathophy Read More

The Coronin family is one of the WD-repeat domain containing families that are diverse in both of their structures and functions. The first coronin was identified in the cytoskeleton composition of Dictyostelium discoideum, which was discovered to regulate the actin functions. So far, 723 coronins have been identified throughout the eukaryotic kingdom by bioinformatics analysis in 358 species. In mammals, 7 coronins hav Read More

This is a second part of the three-part article from a series of reviews on the abundance and roles of intrinsic disorder in milk proteins. We continue to describe α-lactalbumin, a small globular Ca2+-binding protein, which besides being one of the two components of lactose synthase that catalyzes the final step of the lactose biosynthesis in the lactating mammary gland, possesses a multitude of other functions. In fact, rec Read More