Mapping MAPK Activation

Courtesy of R&D Systems

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) – serine/threonine protein kinases involved in inflammation and growth and implicated in chronic pain, cancer, and stress – are a hot topic these days. In the past five years alone, more than 21,000 papers related to these signaling proteins have been published.

Now, Minneapolis-based R&D Systems http://www.rndsystems.com has introduced a new tool for studying the MAPK pathway. The Human Phospho-MAPK Array Kit, released in September, is a nitrocellulose membrane, ELISA-based array for profiling the activation of two serine/threonine protein kinase cascades – MAPK and PI3K-detecting the phosphorylation states of nine proteins in each of the two pathways.

While similar arrays are available from other vendors, including Pierce Biotechnology of Rockford, Ill., and Bio-Rad Laboratories of Hercules, Calif., R&D Systems' product is the only one that can detect the activation of every isoform in the MAPK pathway, says product manager Richard Krzyzek....