Pancreatic Cancer Biomarkers: Post-Translational State of Nuclear and Cytosolic High Mobility Group Box Protein-1 HMGB1 as determined by MALDI-TOF MS

摘要

HMGB1 is an important mediator in stressed tissues. HMGB1 is a damage associated molecular pattern (DAMP) molecule released from necrotic cells and secreted by macrophages, NK cells, and mature DCs. HMGB1 over-expression signifies poor prognoses in many tumor types. HMGB1 is an amphoteric protein having two basic DNA-binding domains and an acidic tail. The acidic tail modulates its interactions with negatively supercoiled DNA, serves as a nuclear transport signal and modulates other post-translational modifications. Separating this molecule from high abundance serum proteins and using a bottom up proteomic approach to assess its post-translational modifications yields useful biomarkers and may uncover critical differences in this molecule under normal and diseased conditions.