D.M Kar Young Scientist Award
Abstract
Lithium is a drug used for bipolar disorders and has been shown to be neuro-protective. However, lithium is also a well-known teratogen demonstrated to cause arrest in cell cycle and apoptosis in developing chick brain. These opposing actions of Lithium suggest that its effect on various cellular and molecular actions needs further investigation. Acetylcholinesterase [AChE] is an enzyme, which hydrolyses acetylcholine and is used as a marker for cholinergic neural function. It is known to be involved in synaptogenesis. While on one hand it is known to be a marker for the developing chick brain it is also implicated in neurodegenerative diseases. The activity of this key enzyme was investigated. Further it is known that in vertebrates the protein is synthesized by a single gene and undergoes alternative splicing to give 6-8 isoforms. Isozyme patterns of acetylcholine esterase have been suggested to be useful prognostic markers of neuronal degeneration. We therefore elucidated the alteration of isozyme pattern due to lithium. Chick is a well-documented system used to study drug action and was used in the present study. Acetylcholinesterase’s specific activity in Lithium-treated developing chick brain decreased significantly. Normal developing chick brain has 3 bands. In lithium-treated chick brain the 3 bands were visible, however, the proportion of the first band which is the soluble proportion increased significantly while the membrane bound proportion decreased. Lithium has been reported to modulate cytoskeleton proteins and could be responsible for this alteration in isozyme profile observed.
Presentation: - http://openmed.nic.in/1207/