Creative Biolabs is a technology-based service provider specialized in the development of high-quality antibodies and in vitro diagnostic (IVD) immunoassays. We provide custom production and validation services of antibodies against a wide spectrum of disease biomarkers. Here, we briefly introduce the potential of C-kit as a potential biomarker for tumor diagnosis.
C-kit is a proto-oncogene located on the long arm of chromosome 4. It is a Type-III transmembrane receptor tyrosine Kinase with a molecular weight of 145 kDa. The protein has five distinct domains: a glycosylated extracellular ligand-binding domain, a hydrophobic transmembrane domain, an intracellular juxtamembrane domain, and two tyrosine kinase domains. In general, four C-kit isomers have been found in humans according to the alternative RNA splicing. The presence of serine residues in the region of kinase insert differentiates the two isoforms while the other two are distinguished by a stretch of four acids on the extracellular side. In normal stem cells, C-kit plays an important role in the stem and progenitor cells of different systems and the loss-of-function mutations lead to varied defects. In cancer cells, different types of deregulation of C-kit, such as the gain of function, loss of function, overexpression, and point mutations, can result in different kinds of cancers.
Fig.1 Schematic representation of c-KIT activation and downstream signaling.3
C-kit has been found to be higher than normal amounts, or in a changed form, on different types of cancer cells, such as gastrointestinal stromal tumors and melanoma. Measuring the amount of C-kit in tumor tissues may help diagnose cancer. Tariq et al. (2017) evaluated the level of C-kit expression in tumor samples including Adenoid cystic carcinoma (AdCC) and Polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma (PLGA) using immunohistochemical techniques. They demonstrated that C-kit expression can be used as a marker in differentiating AdCC from PLGA in patients of salivary gland carcinomas. Besides the detection of C-kit expression on tumor cells, measurement of C-kit protein serum levels has also been reported to be useful for cancer diagnosis. It is reported that the assessment of the serum levels of C-kit in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and concluded that C-kit protein could be a reliable serum biomarker with specificity and sensitivity in the diagnosis of GIST.
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