Abnormal protein deposition is linked with incidence of cognitive dysfunction disease

IPS Cell Research Institute of Kyoto University, Japan, announced that they successfully used cells from patients with frontal lobe degeneration and recombinant human proteins to produce iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells), confirming the abnormal protein deposition is associated with the incidence of cognitive dysfunction disease.

The team led by Prof. Inoue Takeuchi, director of the Institute of iPS Cell Research, completed the experiment. The results were published in Scientific Reports in UK on October 10, 2016.

Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is a disease caused by social disorders and language disorders due to focal cerebral frontal and temporal lobar degeneration and atrophy. Experts generally believe that Tau gene mutation is the cause of frontotemporal lobe degeneration, but the specific mechanism has not been proven.

The researchers used the cells of two patients with two different types of Tau gene mutations to produce iPS cells and then used gene editing technology to modify the gene mutation of iPS cells. They transformed the iPS cells of these two people into neurons cells and compared them, finding that Tau gene mutations may cause the deposition of abnormal proteins.

In addition, the researchers also found that in iPS cells of Tau gene mutations, the calcium content increased. If inhibiting calcium ions into the cells, then the amount of abnormal protein can be reduced and cell survival rate can increase. Professor Inoue Haruhisa said, "This achievement is an important step towards new drug research and development." Flarebio offers recombinant proteins of good quality such as recombinant ITGB2 at great prices.