Peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs) are ligand-activated transcription factors involved in processes such as angiogenesis, cell cycle, apoptosis, and lipid metabolism thereby having a significant effect on cell fate and cell metabolism. After activation, PPARs heterodimerize with the 9-cis-retinoic acid receptor (RXR) and subsequently bind to DNA on specific response elements termed Peroxisome Proliferator Response Elements (PPREs), located in regulatory regions of target genes, thereby modulating their transcriptional activity. All PPREs identified initially consist of the juxtaposition of two derivatives of the canonical hexamer sequence AGGTCA spaced by one nucleotide, commonly called Direct Repeat 1 (DR1). However, recent published reports demonstrated of a DR2 (spaced by two nucleotides) as a PPAR-responsive element which creates urgency for development of a new PPRESearch database with a capacity to search for both DR1 and DR2 repeats. Our PPRESearch database is based on in vivo and in vitro experimentally derived data for PPAR binding regions. Thus, this database could determine PPREs with high accuracy and reliability. Uniquely, our PPRESearch has the capability to analyze if the putative PPREs could be bound by PPARα, PPARβ/δ, or PPARγ. If all PPAR isoforms could bind to the PPRE sites, our database is then able to predict the most preferred isoform based on binding affinity.
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PPRESearch: Peroxisome Proliferator Activator Element Search Database