Study of the function of Aig1l protein and the mechanism of acupuncture

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24590884
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: General internal medicine (including Psychosomatic medicine)
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: OHTA Mika 神戸大学, 医学部附属病院, 学術研究員 (20274706)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TAKOKA Yutaka 神戸大学, 医学部附属病院, 准教授 (20332281) ; ICHINOSE Akihiro 神戸大学, 医学部附属病院, 特命准教授 (90362780)
• Research Collaborator: SUGANO Aki 神戸大学, 医学部附属病院, 特命助教 (20457039)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 東洋医学 / 鍼治療 / Aig1l / ホモロジーモデリング法 / フラグメントアセンブリ法

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We previously found acupuncture-induced 1-L (Aig1l) gene and determined the full-length cDNA (Genbank accession no. DQ167195). Our aim is to elucidate the function of Aig1l protein and the mechanism of acupuncture therapy in this study. We used synthetic peptides as antigens and produced five anti-Aig1l antibodies. We obtained a specific antibody from those antibodies. The tertiary structure of Aig1l protein's 217-895 amino acids from N-terminus (679 out of 962 amino acids) was constructed by using homology modeling method and fragment assembly method. We then observed positional relation of three CUB domains and five sushi domains in structure. The result of our molecular simulation suggested that the Aig1l protein was possibly related to cell adhesion and/or axon guidance of neurons.

Free Research Field

東洋医学