title: Vacuole-creating protein in neurodegenerative diseases in humans.
abstract: Vacuole-creating protein (VCP) is a member of the ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities and is a putative sensor protein for degenerative proteins. Immunohistochemical examinations demonstrated that VCP was observed in ubiquitin-positive intraneuronal inclusions in motor neuron disease with dementia, ballooned neurons in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, dystrophic neurites of senile plaque in Alzheimer's disease, and Lewy and Marinesco bodies and Lewy neurites in Parkinson's disease, while granules of granulovacuolar degeneration and neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease were not positively stained for VCP. These results indicate that VCP reacts with abnormal or misfolded proteins and plays a role in accelerating the process of degeneration and cell death. The elucidation of an association between VCP and these degenerative proteins will provide an important clue for understanding common mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, 3-39-22 Showa-machi, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan. mizunoy@med.gunma-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hori
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kakizuka
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okamoto
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D007564:Japan / Q000208:ethnology; D016472:Motor Neuron Disease; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000378:metabolism*; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000473:pathology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D025801:Ubiquitin / Q000378:metabolism; D025262:Vacuolar Proton-Translocating ATPases / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D025801:Ubiquitin; D025262:Vacuolar Proton-Translocating ATPases