Characterizing CGI-94 (comparative gene identification-94) which is down-regulated in the hippocampus of early stage Alzheimer's disease brain.
The treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains a major challenge because of the incomplete understanding of the triggering events that lead to the selective neurodegeneration characteristic of AD brains. Here we describe a new protein, CGI-94, that is down-regulated at the mRNA level in the hippocampus of early stage AD brain. Transfection experiments with CGI-94 as a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-fusion-protein show that this protein is translocated into the nucleus of the cell. The finding that this protein, which has a bipartite nuclear localization signal, is also observed in the cytoplasm and extracellular space points to a multifunctional protein. Immunohistochemical analyses reveal that CGI-94 is mainly expressed in neurons of the hippocampal formation and the cortex but not in the cerebellar nucleus. In conclusion, the expression of the nucleolar phosphoprotein CGI-94 appears to be disturbed in early processes of neuronal degeneration.
Heese
Klaus
K
BF Research Institute, c/o National Cardiovascular Center, 5-7-1 Fujishiro-dai, Suita, Osaka, 565-0873 Japan. heesek@silber.ocn.ne.jp
Nakayama
Takahiro
T
Hata
Ryuji
R
Masumura
Makoto
M
Akatsu
Hiroyasu
H
Li
Feng
F
Nagai
Yasuo
Y
Yamamoto
Takayuki
T
Kosaka
Kenji
K
Suemoto
Takahiro
T
Sawada
Tohru
T
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D015536:Down-Regulation / Q000235:genetics; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013347:Subcellular Fractions / Q000378:metabolism
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010750:Phosphoproteins; C452380:Utp11 protein, rat; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins