Rabbit Anti-Human PAK7 (internal) Polyclonal antibody

The p21-activated kinases (PAKs) are important effectors of Rho-family small GTPases. The PAK family consists of two groups, type I and type II, which have different modes of regulation and signaling. PAK6, a type II PAK, influences behavior and locomotor function in mice and has an ascribed role in androgen receptor signaling. Here we show that PAK6 has a peptide substrate specificity very similar to the other type II PAKs, PAK4 and PAK5 (PAK7). We find that PAK6 catalytic activity is inhibited by a peptide corresponding to its N-terminal pseudosubstrate. Introduction of a melanoma-associated mutation, P52L, into this peptide reduces pseudosubstrate autoinhibition of PAK6, and increases phosphorylation of its substrate PACSIN1 (Syndapin I) in cells. Finally we determine two co-crystal structures of PAK6 catalytic domain in complex with ATP-competitive inhibitors. We determined the 1.4 angstrom co-crystal structure of PAK6 with the type II PAK inhibitor PF-3758309, and the 1.95 angstrom co-crystal structure of PAK6 with sunitinib. These findings provide new insights into the structure-function relationships of PAK6 and may facilitate development of PAK6 targeted therapies.

Prostate cancer (PC) is a common malignant tumor that occurs in the prostate epithelial cells. It is generally considered to be caused by both genetic and environmental factors. To identify the genetic risk factors of PC in Chinese population, we carried out a genome-wide haplotype-based association study. The 33 Chinese PC cases were from the public GEO database (GSE18333), and the 139 Chinese controls (CHB) were from the HapMap project. Our analysis included three stages: (1) identifying the linkage disequilibrium (LD) blocks and performing genome-wide haplotype association scan, (2) mapping PC-risk haplotypes to PC candidate genes, and (3) prioritizing PC candidate genes based on their similarity to known PC susceptibility genes. The results showed that (1) 749 haplotypes were significantly associated with PC (P<1E-5). (2) Then, we mapped these significant haplotypes to genes and got 454 PC candidate genes. (3) After prioritizing the candidate genes based on their similarity to known PC susceptibility genes, we found that seven novel PC susceptibility genes including BLM, RPS6KA2, FRK, ERBB4, RBL1, PAK7, and ERBB2IP. Among the seven genes, BLM gene ranked first (P=1.89E-04). A haplotype GGTTACCCCTC (rs2270131, rs2073919, rs11073953, rs12592875, rs16944863, rs2238337, rs414634, rs401549, rs17183344, rs16944884, and rs16944888) on chromosome 15q26.1 had significant association with PC (P=2.37E-11). To our knowledge, this is the first genetic association study to show the significant association between BLM gene and PC susceptibility in Chinese population.