[Techniques for assaying the activity of transcription factor NF-κB]

NF-κB is a stimulatory transcription factor that is ubiquitous in almost all kinds of cells. When cells are under various stimuli, NF-κB is activated and regulates large numbers of target genes, and thus controls important cellular processes, ranging from cell growth and differentiation to apoptosis and cancer. Therefore, NF-κB is a forefront hotspot transcription factor that is intensively studied in virtually all fields of biomedical sciences, and becomes a promising target for disease therapy and drug screening. The activity detection is the first and inevitable step for the studies of NF-κB activation and function.Therefore, the techniques for detection of NF-κB activity have always been paid more attention and continuously developed. Especially in recent year, along with the development of each disciplines, various new techniques have been developed, including ELISA-like assays based on dsDNA-coupled plate, filter binding assays, FRET assays, fluorescence reporting and nucleic acids amplification assays based on exonuclease and endonuclease, MS and flow cytometry assays based on immunomicrobeads, and other biophysical and electrochemical assays. Some of these techniques have already played important roles in NF-κB studies. This paper reviewed new techniques developed in recent years by classification, in order to provide an overview of NF-κB activity assays, which may be helpful for researchers to select appropriate techniques used in their studies. Moreover, the learning and understanding of these techniques may inspire researchers to improve currently existing techniques and develop novel methods for the studies of NF-κB.