PKR ABfinity™ Recombinant Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody is validated to react with human and has an expected reactivity with Rhesus monkey PKR. This antibody is validated for use in Western Blot and Immunofluorescence. PKR is encoded by the 5610 gene, also known as Protein kinase RNA-activated, EIF2AK2, p68 kinase.

Double-stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR) is a 68 kDa protein that is induced by interferon and double-stranded RNAs (dsRNA) produced in virus-infected cells (1). Two dsRNA-binding domains in the N-terminus interact with dsRNA to modify the conformation of PKR and allow it to undergo autophosphorylation and activation. Once activated, PKR phosphorylates eIF2α, leading to inhibition of protein synthesis, growth suppression, and apoptosis induction (2-4). The phosphorylation of two sites in the activation loop of the kinase domain, threonines 446 and 451 is critical for high level catalytic activity (5 and 6).

1. Vorburger, S.A., et al. (2002) Role for the double-stranded RNA activated protein kinase PKR in E2F-1-induced apoptosis. Oncogene 21(41):6278-6288.
2. Horng, T., et al. (2001) TIRAP: an adapter molecule in the Toll signaling pathway. Nature Immunol. 2 (9):835-841.
3. Peel, A.L., et al. (2001) Double-stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase, PKR, binds preferentially to Huntington's disease (HD) transcripts and is activated in HD tissue. Human Mol. Gen. 10(15):1531-1538.
4. Patel, C.V., et al. (2000) PACT, a stress-modulated cellular activator of interferon-induced, double-stranded RNA activated protein kinase, PKR. J. Biol. Chem. 275(48):37993-37998.
5. Zhang, F., et al. (2001) Binding of double-stranded RNA to protein kinase PKR is required for dimerization and promotes critical autophosphorylation events in the activation loop. J. Biol. Chem. 276(27):24946-24958.
6. Cuddihy, A.R., et al. (1999) The double-stranded RNA activated protein kinase PKR physically associates with the tumor suppressor p53 protein and phosphorylates human p53 on serine 392 in vitro. Oncogene 18(17):2690-2702.