Research for inhibitory effect on amyloid beta aggregation of ER stress protein calnuc

• Project/Area Number: 26860925
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Psychiatric science
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Kanayama Daisuke 大阪大学, 保健センター, 講師 (00647886)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2015)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
• Keywords: アミロイドβ / アルツハイマー病 / Calnuc(Nucleobindin-1) / 小胞体ストレス / Aβ / Calnuc（Nucleobindin-1）

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Calnuc is known as a ER stress associated protein and previously reported that Calnuc inhibit amylin aggregation, observed in NIDDM patients. We discovered Calnuc can also inhibit the aggregation of amyloid β (Aβ), which is supposed to be a main pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). So we are now investigating the availability of Calnuc as a therapeutic target of AD. We first verified the inhibitory effect of Calnuc on Aβ aggregation under physiological conditions, revealed appropriate pH and Ca++ concentration is needed. Then we employed Aβ over-expression cells to confirm Calnuc-Aβ interaction in extracellular culture media and such interaction is confirmed by immunoprecipitation method. We are now proceeding this study for cell lines and laboratory animals to utilize Calnuc as therapeutic or preventive target of AD in the future.