Bladder Cancer Associated Protein (BLCAP)

BLCAP was identified using a differential display procedure with tumor biopsies obtained from a noninvasive and an invasive bladder transitional cell carcinoma. Although database searches revealed no homology to any human gene at the time of identification, mouse, rat and zebrafish orthologs have since been identified. The function of this differentially expressed protein is not yet known but it appears to be down-regulated during bladder cancer progression.The deduced 87-amino acid peptide has a calculated molecular mass of 9.8 kD. It has an N-terminal cytoplasmic region, followed by a proline-rich region with characteristics of the SRC homology-3 domain-binding site, 2 highly hydrophobic regions, and a C terminus with a putative casein kinase II phosphorylation site. .