Science and R&D
Screening the human genome with bioinformatical tools enabled us to find a chromosome sequence in chromosome 10 (HUM: 10q25.3; AL133482.15; GI: 15617233; region 16945...17199), which encodes an 84 amino-acids protein with a signal peptide sequence at its N-terminus [1].
In the mouse genome the analog sequence was found in chromosome 19. We found that new cDNA presents mainly in the thymus and partially in the colon and the frontal lobes of the brain. We found that TCApF is the naïve ligand of T1/ST2 receptor and shown that T1/ST2 is a selective death receptor for proliferating cancer cells [1]. Predicted secondary structure of the peptide, its size, solubility and compactability imply that the protein is most likely a novel hormone-peptide.
It was shown that binding TCApF to T1/ST2 receptor initiates both Caspases 8 and Bcl-2 mediated apoptotic pathways. It was found that TCApF was unable to induce apoptosis in non-proliferating cells. We argued that the selectivity of TCApF-induced apoptosis is related to the level of T1/ST2 receptor expression, which are overexpressed in several types of the cancer and inflamed cells. We have also shown that TCApF inhibits angiogenesis by suppressing the expression of the VEGFA, VEGFR1 receptor and enhancing the expression of IL-10 anti-angiogenic interleukin [1].
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