[Frontiers in Bioscience E2, 1211-1217 June 1, 2010]

Functional characterization of the decoy peptide, R10PIFLKRMPSI19P

AHM Nurun Nabi1, Kazal Boron Biswas2, Yoshie Arai1, Mohammad Nasir Uddin1, Tsutomu Nakagawa1,2, Akio Ebihara1,2, Atsuhiro Ichihara3, Tadashi Inagami4, Fumiaki Suzuki1,2

1Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, 2United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan; 3Department of Internal Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; 4Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232 USA

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. The decoy peptide and in vitro studies
4. The decoy peptide and in vivo studies
5. In vitro and in vivo use of fluorescent tagged decoy peptide
6. Conclusion
7. Acknowledgements
8. References

1. ABSTRACT

Decoy peptide (R10PIFLKRMPSI19P) showed its beneficial role in ameliorating the end-stage organ damage related disorders. Subsequently, in vivo and in vitro studies have been carried out to verify its effectiveness in several models using different experimental approaches. These studies with decoy peptide including the "handle" sequence have focused on the association of the (pro)renin receptor and prorenin in the pathogenesis of diabetes and hypertension. However, the function of (pro)renin receptor might be more complex than it was anticipated as it is not only distributed intracellularly and appeared on the cell membrane but also found in plasma. The decoy resembling the N-terminal sequence of prorenin has been useful in determining the structure-function relationship of prorenin and (P)RR. Therefore, this review tries to shed light on the use of decoy peptide in elucidating the functional properties of both prorenin and (pro)renin receptor by pointing out recent studies.