Elucidation of molecular mechanisms underlying cell-adhesion molecule-dependent autism spectrum disorders

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25670149
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: General medical chemistry
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: HARA Yuji 京都大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (60362456)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TANABE Kenji 東京女子医科大学, 医学部, テニュアトラック准教授 (80423341)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 細胞接着因子 / 自閉症 / Neurexinファミリー / CNTNAP2

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Interactions mediated by cell adhesion molecules are important for fine-tuning of neuronal activities. It has been shown that disrupted interactions between pre- and post-synaptic cells lead to a variety of neural diseases including autism spectrum disorders. In this study we aimed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying autism spectrum disorders, by means of identification interacting molecules for autism spectrum disorder-related factor CNTNAP2.
We carried out proteomic approaches by utilizing the extracellular region of CNTNAP2 as an affinity column. However, during the course of this study, other researchers identified CNTNAP2-interacting molecules by complehensive proteomic approaches. Thus we decided to also focus on other cell-cell adhesion molecules such as CNTNAP4 that is involved in synaptic transmission in mice.

Free Research Field

生化学