Metadherin Antibody

MTDH (Metadherin; also Lyric and Astrocyte-elevated gene-1/AEG1) is a unique molecule originally discovered to be upregulated in astrocytes following HIV infection. Although its predicted MW is 64 kDa, it runs anomalously at approximately 80 kDa in SDS-Page. It is widely expressed, and appears to be a component of the ER, nucleolus and inner nuclear membrane. MTDH is reported to promote Akt/PI3 kinase activity, and suppress apoptosis-associated FOXO3A transcription. Mouse MTDH is a type III (i.e.- a type I with no signal sequence) transmembrane protein 579 amino acids (aa) in length. It contains a luminal N-terminus (aa 1-48) with a 510 aa cytoplasmic C-terminus. There are no identifiable structural motifs, although two poly-Lys segments and two utilized Ser phosphorylation sites exist. Multiple bands at 80 kDa, 75 kDa, 50-55 kDa and 37 kDa are seen for MTDH on SDS-Page. They may reflect the presence of at least two potential isoform variants that show 1) a deletion of aa 422-457, and 2) an Ile substitution for aa 190-579. Over aa 167-297, mouse MTDH shares 98% and 97% aa sequence identity with rat and human MTDH, respectively.