Prion protein expression aids cellular uptake and veratridine-induced release of copper
✍ Scribed by David R. Brown
- Book ID
- 101245163
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 164 KB
- Volume
- 58
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0360-4012
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✦ Synopsis
The function of the prion protein is unknown despite suggestions it binds copper. Radioactive copper (Cu 67 ) was used to demonstrate that histidinedependent uptake of copper by cerebellar cells in culture is related to the level of PrP c expression.
Copper is released by neurones at the synapse. Veratridine-induced release from synapses was proportional to the level of PrP c expression. Veratridine-induced release can be abolished only from PrP c expressing cells by pretreatment with phosphatidyl-specific phospholipase C, an enzyme that cleaves PrP c from the cell surface. These results suggest that PrP c aids cellular copper uptake and may have a function at the synapse related to release of copper during transmission.