The Development of Assays for Heparanase Enzymatic Activity: Towards a Gold Standard.
The enzyme heparanase, an endo-β-glucuronidase, degrades heparan sulfate (HS) chains on the cell surface and in the extracellular matrix. Heparanase regulates numerous biological processes that drive tumour growth, metastasis and angiogenesis. In addition to its key role in cancer progression, it has also been implicated in an ever-growing number of other diseases, particularly those associated with inflammation. The importance of heparanase in biology has led to numerous efforts over the years to develop assays to monitor its activity and to screen for new inhibitors as potential drug candidates. Despite these efforts and the commercialization of a few kits, most heparanase assays are still complex, labour intensive, costly or have limited application. Herein we review the various methods for assaying heparanase enzymatic activity, focusing on recent developments towards new assays that hold the promise of accelerating research into this important enzyme.
['Chhabra|Mohit|M|', 'Ferro|Vito|V|0000-0003-3306-2550']
D000818:Animals D004187:Disaccharides D004789:Enzyme Activation D057075:Enzyme Assays D005966:Glucuronidase D006497:Heparitin Sulfate D006801:Humans D013379:Substrate Specificity
heparanase heparan sulfate enzyme assay fondaparinux glycosaminoglycan