Persistence of psychosine in brain lipid rafts is a limiting factor in the therapeutic recovery of a mouse model for Krabbe disease.

ABSTRACT: Sphingolipids are intrinsic components of membrane lipid rafts. The abnormal accumulation of these molecules may introduce architectural and functional changes in these domains, leading to cellular dysfunction. Galactosylsphingosine (psychosine) is a pathogenic lipid raft-associated molecule whose accumulation leads to brain deterioration and irreversible neurological handicap in the incurable leukodystrophy Krabbe disease (KD). The relevance of clearing excessive levels of pathogenic psychosine from lipid rafts in therapy for KD has not been investigated. The work presented here demonstrates that psychosine inhibits raft-mediated endocytosis in neural cells. In addition, although in vitro enzyme reconstitution is sufficient for the reversal of related endocytic defects in affected neural

SUBMITTER: White AB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3064524 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature