ASC/TMS1 (D2W8U) Rabbit mAb (Alexa Fluor® 555 Conjugate)

TMS1 (target of methylation-induced silencing)/ASC (apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD), also referred to as PYCARD and CARD5, is a 22 kDa pro-apoptotic protein containing an N-terminal pyrin domain (PYD) and a C-terminal caspase recruitment domain (CARD) (1-2). The ASC/TMS1 gene was originally found to be aberrantly methylated and silenced in breast cancer cells (2), and has since been found to be silenced in a number of other cancers, including ovarian cancer (3), glioblastoma (4), melanoma (5), gastric cancer (6), lung cancer (7), and prostate cancer (8). Expression of ASC/TMS1 can be induced by pro-apoptotic/inflammatory stimuli (9). During apoptosis ASC/TMS1 is re-distributed from the cytosol to the mitochondria and associates with mitochondrial Bax to trigger cytochrome c release and subsequent apoptosis (10). ASC/TMS1 has also been found to be a critical component of inflammatory signaling where it associates with and activates caspase-1 in response to pro-inflammatory signals (11). 1.Masumoto, J. et al. (1999) J Biol Chem 274, 33835-8. 2.Conway, K.E. et al. (2000) Cancer Res 60, 6236-42. 3.Terasawa, K. et al. (2004) Clin Cancer Res 10, 2000-6. 4.Stone, A.R. et al. (2004) Am J Pathol 165, 1151-61. 5.Guan, X. et al. (2003) Int J Cancer 107, 202-8. 6.Moriai, R. et al. (2002) Anticancer Res 22, 4163-8. 7.Virmani, A. et al. (2003) Int J Cancer 106, 198-204. 8.Das, P.M. et al. (2006) Mol Cancer 5, 28. 9.Strong, R. et al. (1991) Brain Res 542, 23-8. 10.Ohtsuka, T. et al. (2004) Nat Cell Biol 6, 121-8. 11.Srinivasula, S.M. et al. (2002) J Biol Chem 277, 21119-22.