背景介绍 WNK2 is a serine/threonine kinase of the WNK (with no lysine (K)) protein kinase subfamily that also include WNK1, 3 and 4. The WNK kinases feature a cysteine residue in place of a lysine residue conserved in subdomain II of most kinases. WNK2 is predominantly expressed in brain, heart muscle, small intestine, and colon. As a tumor suppressor, WNK2 is involved in the modulation of growth factor-induced cancer cell proliferation through the MEK1/ERK1/2 pathway. WNK2 expression was found down-regulated epigenetically by promoter methylation in human gliomas.