Characterizing CGI-94 (comparative gene identification-94) which is down-regulated in the hippocampus of early stage Alzheimer's disease brain

• Published in: The European journal of neuroscience Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 79 - 86
• Main Authors: Heese, Klaus, Nakayama, Takahiro, Hata, Ryuji, Masumura, Makoto, Akatsu, Hiroyasu, Li, Feng, Nagai, Yasuo, Yamamoto, Takayuki, Kosaka, Kenji, Suemoto, Takahiro, Sawada, Tohru
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science, Ltd 01-01-2002
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease - genetics; Alzheimer Disease - metabolism; Amino Acid Sequence; amyloid β-protein; Animals; Blotting, Western; Cells, Cultured; Cloning, Molecular; DNA, Complementary - biosynthesis; DNA, Complementary - genetics; Down-Regulation - genetics; Green Fluorescent Proteins; Hippocampus - metabolism; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Luminescent Proteins - metabolism; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Molecular Sequence Data; neurodegeneration; neurotoxicity; neurotrophic factor; Nuclear Proteins - genetics; Nuclear Proteins - metabolism; Open Reading Frames; Phosphoproteins - genetics; Phosphoproteins - metabolism; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Subcellular Fractions - metabolism
• ISSN: 0953-816X; 1460-9568
• DOI: 10.1046/j.0953-816x.2001.01836.x

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.