Article Biochemical polymorphism of the growth hormone system protei...

may be useful

Hi Daniel, important is how you want to target those proteins, either through western blots, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, or flow cytometry or anything else. And, also whether your target is a normal, hypertrophic or a malignant prostate.

Numerous unique markers exist on prostatic cells like the famous PSA, which is a powerful serine protease elaborated by epithelial cells of prostatic duct. Routinely detected in blood.

Alpha 2 macroglobulin and alpha -1 antichymotrypsin, both of them sheath the PSA molecule to various extents.

Heavy expression of CD166 (ALCAM), which is a transmembrane glycoprotein, especially in CRPC (metastatic) cases.

PSMA (Prostate specific membrane antigen), a transmembrane protein present in all the tissues of prostate.

PSCA (Prostate stem cell antigen) of 10-24 kD and found in basal and secretory epithelial cells of prostate.

AR (Androgen Receptors).

And hopefully this article will help you further!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1867111

Regards....

Dear Jawwad and Mushtaj,

Thank you very much for your answers to my question. I am a materials scientist and chemist and struggle finding answers to such questions. My aim is to find a chemical target that is unique to all prostate cells, whether they are healthy or cancerous, to target. I hope to do this with molecularly imprinted nanoparticles, so called 'plastic antibodies' designed to be highly selective with high affinity. Fortunately, unlike monoclonal antibodies, these are able to enter into the cell to target chemicals found there. So I am looking for a unique target that is not secreted but remains in the cell and is not lost when a healthy prostate cell becomes cancerous. The target should not be found in any other tissues/ cells in the body other than the prostate. Having looked on databases such as the Human Protein Atlas and the Protein Day Bank, there are no obvious molecular candidates that entirely fit my requirements. PSA would be ideal, but is secreted, so unless it pools in the cell prior to being secreted I am not sure if it would be the target I am looking for. I would be able to target parts of mRNA that fit my requirements and notice on these databases RNA expressed by Transglutaminase 4, that might be a suitable intracellular target. However, I am very inexperienced at interpreting such databases and might be completely wrong. Do you have experience in using these databases, what are your thoughts? Is there a book that teaches you how to use these databases that you could recommend? One again, I thank you for taking the time to respond to my questions. Prostate and other cancers are terrible diseases and are worthy opponents. I wish you every success in working in this field. My best regards and thanks, Daniel.