- Kallikrein
Kallikreins (tissue and plasma kallikrein) are peptidases (enzymes that cleave peptide bonds in proteins), a subgroup of the
serine protease family.Functions
They liberate
kinin s (BK and KD) from thekininogen s. [Oikonomopoulou, K., Hansen, K.K., Saifeddine, M., Tea, I., Blaber, M., Blaber, S.I., Scarisbrick, I., Andrade-Gordon, P., Cottrell, G.S., Bunnett, N.W., Diamandis, E.P., and Hollenberg, M.D. "Proteinase-activated receptors, targets for kallikrein signaling"Journal of Biological Chemistry . 281: 32095-112, 2006. ]It also generates
plasmin fromplasminogen :Prekallikrein is the precursor of plasma kallikrein. It can only activate kinins after being activated itself byfactor XII or other stimuli.Genes
There are 15 known kallikreins:
KLK1 ,KLK2 ,KLK3 ,KLK4 ,KLK5 ,KLK6 ,KLK7 ,KLK8 ,KLK9 ,KLK10 ,KLK11 ,KLK12 ,KLK13 ,KLK14 ,KLK15 Clinical significance
Kallikreins are targets of active investigation by drug researchers as possible
biomarker s for cancer. [Borgono, C.A., and Diamandis, E.P. "The emerging roles of human tissue kallikreins in cancer" Nature Reviews Cancer 4: 876-90, 2004.] [Diamandis, E.P., and Yousef, G.M. "Human Tissue Kallikreins: A Family of New Cancer Biomarkers" Clinical Chemistry 48: 1198-1205, 2002.]Prostate-specific antigen (PSA; hk3, human kallikrein gene 3) and human glandular kallikrein (hK2) are used astumor marker s for prostate cancer.ee also
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Prekallikrein
*Kinin-kallikrein system
*Kinin
*Aprotinin References
External links
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