Carna Biosciences: A Leading Producer of Kinases
Carna Biosciences offers an expanded portfolio of high-purity, active recombinant human kinases. All the kinase products are developed and produced entirely in-house, from gene cloning, expression in insect cells or E. coli, and purification, and undergo rigorous quality control. They employ a production approach optimised for each specific kinase and consistently deliver enzymes of superior quality (assay grade). All products are available in various sizes, starting from 5 µg up to bulk production, with a lot-specific data sheet. In addition to GST-tagged (partly HIS and other tagged) products, a wide range of biotinylated kinases labelled with a single biotin at the N-terminus is available.
Their product range includes biotinylated kinases, inactive mutant kinases, lipid kinases, protein substrates, tyrosine kinases, and serine/threonine kinases.
Kinases are a group of enzymes that chemically incorporate substrate proteins with phosphate groups. These enzymes are conserved during evolution. They are found in 3 domains of life. It is interesting to note that nematodes, insects and vertebrates share some kinases in common. As a family, kinases constitute 2% of the human genome and are the third most populous protein groups. There are over 518 kinases encoded by the human genome including both protein and lipid kinases and it has been estimated that kinases regulate approximately 50% of the cellular functions and because of these kinases have become the targets of interest in the treatment of various types of diseases. Approximately 10% among these kinases are pseudokinases as they lack the main residues required for the catalytic activity. They all have a binding site for substrate protein, Mg2+- ATP (Phosphate donor) and various regulatory sites. The process of phosphorylation is temporary as the proteins phosphorylated get dephosphorylated to the previous form of protein. Phosphorylation may bring conformational changes, affect enzymatic activity, stability or degradation, association with other proteins and localization within the cell. Kinases are involved in various cellular functions like metabolism, regulation of cell cycle, cell adhesion, migration, cellular differentiation and survival.
Kinases are a group of enzymes that chemically incorporate phosphate groups into substrate proteins. These enzymes are conserved during evolution. They are found in three domains of life. It is interesting to note that nematodes, insects, and vertebrates share some kinases in common. As a family, kinases constitute 2% of the human genome and are the third most populous protein group. There are over 518 kinases encoded by the human genome, including both protein and lipid kinases, and it has been estimated that kinases regulate approximately 50% of the cellular functions. Because of this, kinases have become targets of interest in the treatment of various types of diseases. Approximately 10% of these kinases are pseudokinases, as they lack the main residues required for the catalytic activity. They all have a binding site for substrate proteins, Mg2+-ATP (a phosphate donor), and various regulatory sites. The process of phosphorylation is temporary as the proteins phosphorylated get dephosphorylated to the previous form of protein. Phosphorylation may bring about conformational changes, affect enzymatic activity, stability or degradation, association with other proteins, and localization within the cell. Kinases are involved in various cellular functions like metabolism, regulation of the cell cycle, cell adhesion, migration, cellular differentiation, and survival.
The physiological role that a kinase will play is determined by its effect on the substrate in response to a biological stimulus. The specificity of a substrate is determined at both macromolecular and micromolecular levels. The macromolecular level involves the specificity between the kinase and the substrate protein. Micromolecular specificity is the ability of the given kinase domain to recognise and phosphorylate a specific amino acid within a substrate. Dysregulation of protein kinases is implicated in various processes of carcinogenesis. Inhibiting these kinases has led to a paradigm shift in cancer therapy. Almost half of the kinases are mapped to known disease loci, cancer amplicons, mutations or their deregulation can directly be related to human diseases.
Types of Kinases
Tyrosine kinases are a large class of kinases that are membrane-bound and phosphorylate tyrosine residues using ATP and have a significant role in various signaling cascades like proliferation, cell cycle, DNA damage response, and inflammatory responses. Tyrosine kinases include enzymes such as the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), stem cell factor receptor, and colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor.
Serine/threonine kinases are a group of kinases that phosphorylate the OH group of serine and threonine. They are a family of kinases that have drug-targeting interests in areas other than oncology. There are two classes of these kinases: protein kinase C (PKC) and cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk). PKC is a class of enzymes whose disruption of activity leads to aging. Lipid kinases are those kinases that phosphorylate the lipids in the cells, both on the plasma membrane and on the membranes of the organelles. Lipid kinases are therapeutic targets for chronic pain. Examples of lipid kinases are phospholipase C, PI3-kinases, PI4-kinases, and phosphatidylinositol phosphate kinases.
Pseudokinases are those kinases that have lost their catalytic ability due to mutations in the critical amino acids of the kinase domain. 48 out of 518 are pseudokinases. They have important catalysis-independent functions like scaffolding proteins. These are also called inactive kinases.
Overall, it is found that the kinases are key players in almost every cellular process, acting as molecular switches within complex networks of signals. Their functions are determined by the nature of the phosphoryl group, the structure of the individual kinase, and also by many dynamic factors that regulate activity. With the continued discovery of new substrates and mechanisms, there is no shortage of research remaining to be pursued to further elucidate their physiological roles and their importance to disease progression.
We, BTL Biotechno Labs Pvt. Ltd. a channel partner of Carna Biosciences in India, offer their complete product range-protein kinases, lipid kinases, assay kits, inhibitors of kinases, recombinant cell lines, receptors, substrates, GST-tagged kinase products, biotinylated tagged kinase products, assay kits, and protein-protein interaction products to the scientific community.
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