Elongation of ubiquitin chains, regardless of the linkage, can form polyubiquitin fibrils to initiate the Autophagy pathway. A deficiency of the autophagy causes cytotoxic accumulation of ubiquitin-positive aggregates leading thus to neurodegenerative diseases (1). A new deubiquitinating enzyme, USP36, highly expressed in human breast and lung cancers, was identified to regulate c-Myc oncoprotein stability in nucleolus. (2) Also, Itch, an E3 HECT Ubiquitin ligase, inhibits MAPK p38α activation through ubiquitylation can be exploited therapeutically to prevent chronic skin inflammation (3). A recent publication by Yumimoto K. et al. determined that expression of FBXW7, the F-box Protein of SCF Ubiquitin Ligase, can suppress cancer metastasis in either non-cell-autonomous or cell-autonomous manner. (4)
In this work, researchers used the anti FBXW7 monoclonal antibody to perform immuno-cyto-chemical staining on breast tissues.
Other tools to study ubiquitination include the use of Tandem Ubiquitin Binding Entities (TUBES) for the isolation and detection of polyubiquitylated proteins. TUBES can be used, in combination with Anti Linear Polyubiquitin antibody to investifgate Uquitin linkages on substrates.
References
- Morimoto, D., et.al. (2015). Nature communications. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7116.
- Sun, X.-X., et.al. (2015). PNAS. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1411713112.
- Theivanthiran, B., et.al. (2015). Science. DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.2005903.
- Yumimoto, K., et.al. (2015) JCI. DOI: 10.172/JCI78782.
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