PLUNC (palate, lung and nasal epithelium carcinoma associated) is a 25 kDa secreted protein that shares homology with bactericidal/permeability-increasing proteins and is expressed in nasopharyngeal and respiratory epithelium.
PLUNC has antimicrobial activity (bacteria and virus) as well as immunomodulatory function and is significantly increased upon exogenous microbial exposure or cytokine stimulation.
Dr. Di at the University of Pittsburgh has generated and developed multiple reagents that include antibodies, recombinant proteins, ELISA, and transgenic mice to assay and/or modulate of PLUNC. These tools can be used to address the problem associated with respiratory infection and the over-expressed human PLUNC protein in mouse lung has been demonstrated by Dr. Di and colleagues to have a survival benefit against bacterial infection. More specifically, the PLUNC antibodies and the developed ELISA can be used for quantification, characterization, and localization of PLUNC protein.