In recent years, a critical need in the Parkinson's Disease (PD) research community has been access to well-characterized antibodies directed against known PD-relevant proteins. The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) has supported this effort by partnering with Drs. Un Kang and David White (University of Chicago) to help accelerate PD research.
DJ-1 is widely expressed in the adult mammal and highly conserved between species. Loss-of-function mutations in DJ-1 were recently identified in an autosomal recessive form of Parkinson’s disease (PARK7). Among other roles, DJ-1 protects cells against oxidative stress. Oxidization of the cysteine 106 residue (C106) of DJ-1 occurs as a consequence oxidative stress, but is also necessary to fully activate DJ-1 functions. The oxidation state of DJ-1 C106 appears to lead to distinct roles for DJ-1 in the cellular response to oxidative stress. Oxidation of C106 to the sulfinic (-SO2H) form has been implicated as a necessary step to achieve optimal protective functions of DJ-1, whereas oxidation to the sulfonic form (-SO3H) results in the oxidative destabilization of DJ-1 structure. The sulfonic form has been identified as a major oxidized form in PD brains.

With the generation of this critical research tool, MJFF hopes to ensure that the role of this modification can be further investigated by all researchers and the relevance of oxidized forms of DJ-1 can be more definitively examined in Parkinson’s disease.

Rat: We have preliminary internal testing data to indicate this antibody may not react with these species. Please contact us for more information.

This product is a recombinant monoclonal antibody, which offers several advantages including:

• - High batch-to-batch consistency and reproducibility
• - Improved sensitivity and specificity
• - Long-term security of supply
• - Animal-free production

Our RabMAb^® technology is a patented hybridoma-based technology for making rabbit monoclonal antibodies. For details on our patents, please refer to RabMAb^® patents.

We are constantly working hard to ensure we provide our customers with best in class antibodies. As a result of this work we are pleased to now offer this antibody in purified format. We are in the process of updating our datasheets. The purified format is designated 'PUR' on our product labels. If you have any questions regarding this update, please contact our Scientific Support team.

The Life Science industry has been in the grips of a reproducibility crisis for a number of years. Abcam is leading the way in addressing the problem with our range of recombinant monoclonal antibodies and knockout edited cell lines for gold-standard validation.

One factor contributing to the crisis is the use of antibodies that are not suitable. This can lead to misleading results and the use of incorrect data informing project assumptions and direction. To help address this challenge, we have introduced an application and species grid on our primary antibody datasheets to make it easy to simplify identification of the right antibody for your needs.

Learn more here.