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Discovery of altered Reelin protein levels in Alzheimer patients opens up new avenues for the diagnosis of neurological diseases

By 30 de March de 2006November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 30.03.2006

Discovery of altered Reelin protein levels in Alzheimer patients opens up new avenues for the diagnosis of neurological diseases

A study published in this week's digital edition of PNAS (Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of USA) provides the first evidence of altered Reelin expression in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The finding, coordinated by Eduardo Soriano, at the and Javier Sáez-Valero, at the Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante (Universidad Miguel Hernández) opens up new avenues for investigation into AD, a disease that currently affects over 800,000 people in Spain.

Reelin is a signalling protein that regulates the migration of neurons during encephalic development and it is essential for the correct organization, development and plasticity of the cerebral cortex. However, little is known about the role of this protein in adult brain. Recent studies performed by E. Soriano’s group showed that Reelin activates intracellular signalling pathways such as ERK, AKT, GSK3, all related to neuronal surviving and protein phosphorylation of the cytoskeleton.

The study reports that Reelin gene and protein is increased in the brains of AD patients. This expression correlates with similar increases in cerebrospinal fluid but not in plasma samples, indicating that Reelin has distinct cell origins in these two tissue fluids. Other types of neurological disorders, such as frontotemporal dementia and progressive supranuclear palsy, also show increased Reelin levels in cerebrospinal fluid. This finding calls for specific studies to determine whether the molecular mechanisms modulated by Reelin are also altered in these kinds of diseases.

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