RUB » Bibliotheksportal

Sarah Ines Ulbrich, Petra Janning, Ralf Seidel, Jakob Matschke, Anika Gonsberg, Sebastian Jung, Markus Glatzel, Martin Engelhard, Konstanze Winklhofer, Jörg Tatzelt

• The cellular prion protein (PrP\(^{C}\)) is implicated in neuroprotective signaling and neurotoxic pathways in both prion diseases and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Specifically, the intrinsically disordered N-terminal domain (N-PrP) has been shown to interact with neurotoxic ligands, such as Aβ and Scrapie prion protein (PrP\(^{Sc}\)), and to be crucial for the neuroprotective activity of PrP\(^{C}\). To gain further insight into cellular pathways tied to PrP, we analyzed the brain interactome of N-PrP. As a novel approach employing recombinantly expressed PrP and intein-mediated protein ligation, we used N-PrP covalently coupled to beads as a bait for affinity purification. N-PrP beads were incubated with human AD or control brain lysates. NPrP binding partners were then identified by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (nano ESI-MS/MS). In addition to newly identified proteins we found many previously described PrP interactors, indicating a crucial role of the intrinsically disordered part of PrP in mediating protein interactions. Moreover, some interactors were found only in either non-AD or AD brain, suggesting aberrant PrPC interactions in the pathogenesis of AD.