Microprotein Atlas Links Brain Immune Cell Dysfunction to Alzheimer’s
Built from transcriptomic and mass spectrometry data, the atlas uncovered more than 1,000 previously uncharacterized microproteins and pointed to a potential connection between one microprotein and microglial dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. The post Microprotein Atlas Links Brain Immune Cell Dysfunction to Alzheimer’s appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News .
Scientists at the Salk Institute have unveiled the first comprehensive atlas of microproteins in the human frontal cortex, revealing potential links to Alzheimer's disease. Microproteins, tiny proteins produced from small open reading frames (ORFs) of 150 amino acids or fewer, have long been overlooked in standard protein catalogs.
The study, published in Nature Aging, utilized transcriptomics, mass spectrometry, and deep-learning-predicted spectra to identify 1,067 previously uncharacterized microproteins absent from reviewed UniProtKB entries. Researchers found that Alzheimer's disease cells tended to show higher overall microprotein expression. The study also identified a microprotein at the MKKS locus, downregulated in Alzheimer's disease, which appeared to be the predominant translation product at that locus and plays a role in microglial bioenergetics.
The findings suggest a possible connection between microproteins and immune cell dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease, highlighting the need to expand our understanding of these overlooked molecules.
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