Kallikreins are a family of 15 serine proteases clustered together on the long arm of chromosome 19. Recent reports have linked kallikreins to malignancy. The human kallikrein gene 6 (KLK6) is a newly characterized member of the human kallikrein gene family. Recent work has focused on the possible role of this gene and its protein product as a tumor marker and its involvement in diseases of the central nervous system. In this study, we performed extensive in silico analyses of KLK6 expression from different databases using various bioinformatic tools. These data enabled us to construct and verify the longest transcript for this kallikrein, to identify several polymorphisms among published sequences and to summarize the 21 single-nucleotide polymorphisms of the gene. Our expressed sequence tag (EST) analyses suggest the existence of seven new splice variants of the gene, in addition to the already reported ones. Most of these variants were identified in libraries from cancerous tissues. KLK6 orthologues were identified from three other species with approximately 86% overall homology with rat and mouse orthologues. We also utilized several databases to compare KLK6 gene expression in normal and cancerous tissues. The serial analysis of gene expression and EST expression profiles showed upregulation of the gene in female genital (ovarian and uterine) and gastrointestinal (gastric, colon, esophageal and pancreatic) cancers. Significant downregulation was observed in breast cancers and brain tumors, in relation to their normal counterparts.

Keywords:
Serine proteases, Human kallikrein gene 6, Zyme, Protease M, Neurosin, Breast cancer, Cancer genes, Tumor markers, Prognostic/predictive factors, Gene expression
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© 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel
2004
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