Detection of Differentially Expressed Genes in Alzheimer's Disease : Regulator of G-protein Signalling 4: A Novel Mediator of APP Processing

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterised by progressive memory deterioration and cognitive impairment. Pathological hallmarks are extracellular senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles and neuron loss. Senile plaques are produced through altered processing of the membrane-bound protein APP. Different neurotransmitter signal transduction pathways have been implicated in the formation or development of Alzheimer’s pathologies, but the molecular mechanisms behind these changes are not well known. The overall aims of this thesis were to identify novel genes with differential expression in Alzheimer’s disease and to investigate mechanisms initiating these changes and their relationship to the disease. A real-time RT-PCR strategy was developed to enable detection of small mRNA changes in human brain autopsy samples. This approach was first used to investigate levels of expression of a candidate gene (MAO), and later employed to verify gene expression differences detected by cDNA microarray analysis. Of several genes verified as differentially expressed in the patients, ITPKB (Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate 3-kinase B) and RGS4 (Regulator of G-protein signalling 4) presented the largest expression differences in Alzheimer’s cases compared to control samples. Several splice variants of RGS4 showed similar down-regulation levels and one rare haplotype was associated with decreased RGS4 expression. Functional studies in SH-SY5Y cell cultures overexpressing RGS4 showed that it is likely that RGS4 affects APP processing by regulating PRKC expression levels. The combined expression of RGS4 and ITPKB is for the first time presented in this thesis as genes with altered mRNA levels in Alzheimer’s disease. These two genes are implicated in the same signalling pathway that modifies calcium levels in the cell. Furthermore, the fact that RGS4 affects APP processing suggests that RGS4 is involved in the development of senile plaques. This motivates further functional studies of this gene and suggests that RGS4 may become a new potential drug target for Alzheimer’s disease