Overexpression of the Hspa13 (Stch) gene reduces prion disease incubation time in mice.

ABSTRACT: Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders that include bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and scrapie in animals and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. They are characterized by long incubation periods, variation in which is determined by many factors including genetic background. In some cases it is possible that incubation time may be directly correlated to the level of gene expression. To test this hypothesis, we combined incubation time data from five different inbred lines of mice with quantitative gene expression profiling in normal brains and identified five genes with expression levels that correlate with incubation time. One of these genes, Hspa13 (Stch), is a member of the Hsp70 family of ATPase heat shock proteins, which have been previously implicated in

SUBMITTER: Grizenkova J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3427081 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature