Anti-Human PKR (NT)

PN:P231

This polyclonal antibody is formulated in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) pH 7.4 containing 0.02% sodium azide as a preservative.

This polyclonal antibody is stable for at least one week when stored at 2-8°C. For long term storage, aliquot in working volumes without diluting and store at –20°C in a manual defrost freezer. Avoid Repeated Freeze Thaw Cycles.

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Rabbit Anti-Human PKR recognizes an epitope near the N-terminus of human, mouse and rat PKR. This polyclonal antibody was purified using affinity chromatography.

The interferon-inducible, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)- dependent protein kinase PKR is a member of the eukaryotic initiation factor-2 alpha (eIF2-α) kinase family, possessing serine-threonine kinase activity and two dsRNA-binding motifs (1) that acts as part of the innate immune system. Upon binding dsRNA, PKR undergoes a conformational change leading to its activation and its phosphorylation of the translation factor eIF2, resulting in a general shutdown of protein synthesis (2) and induction of apoptosis through upregulation of caspase-8 and capsase-9 activity (3,4) in order to prevent the production of more viruses. To evade the antiviral effects of PKR, viruses have evolved multiple mechanisms, such as the inhibition of PKR by the nonstructural protein (NS1) of the influenza virus (5). More recently, PKR has been implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer, Huntington, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (6).

1. Galabru, J. et al. (1990) Cell 62 :379-90.
2. Vandenabeele, P. et al. (2001) J. Biol. Chem. 276:41620-8.
3. Gil, J. and Esteban, M. (2000) Apoptosis 5:107-14.
4. Esteban, M. et al. (2002) FEBS Lett. 19:3665-74.