use strict;
my $str = 'The Proteinase-Activated Receptor-2 interskin (IS)-1ALPHA, -8, -97, -2ALPHA, and -3 was specific antagonist. The LL-37, -15, SAC-1, -7, and -21 in keratinocytes was good.';
my $regex = qr/\b([A-Za-z]+\s*\([A-Z]+\)|[A-Z]+)(\s*-\d+[A-Z]+(?:,*\s*-\d+[A-Z]*)*|\s*-\d+(?:,*\s*-\d+)*)(?:,*\s*and\s+(-\d+))?/mp;
if ( $str =~ /$regex/g ) {
print "Whole match is ${^MATCH} and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[0] and \$+[0]\n";
# print "Capture Group 1 is $1 and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[1] and \$+[1]\n";
# print "Capture Group 2 is $2 ... and so on\n";
}
# ${^POSTMATCH} and ${^PREMATCH} are also available with the use of '/p'
# Named capture groups can be called via $+{name}
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html