中国神经再生研究(英文版) ›› 2023, Vol. 18 ›› Issue (12): 2677-2679.doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.374003

• 观点:退行性病与再生 • 上一篇    下一篇

新发现的FAIM蛋白的生理功能为阿尔茨海默病的新的疾病修饰疗法提供了希望

  

  • 出版日期:2023-12-15 发布日期:2023-06-15

Newfound physiological function of FAIM protein offers hope of novel disease-modifying therapy for Alzheimer’s disease

Allison R. Balaj, Hiroaki Kaku*   

  1. Department of Investigative Medicine, Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, Kalamazoo, MI, USA
  • Online:2023-12-15 Published:2023-06-15
  • Contact: Hiroaki Kaku, PhD, hiroaki.kaku@med.wmich.edu.
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the Pilot Research Project grant awarded by the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, and Public Health Service grant AG072148 awarded by the National Institutes of Health (to HK).

摘要: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5881-0071 (Hiroaki Kaku)

Abstract: Introduction of Fas apoptosis inhibitory molecule (FAIM): FAIM was originally discovered in FAS-resistant mouse primary B lymphocytes in 1999, and was thought of as a FAS-apoptosis inhibitor based on overexpression studies (Schneider et al., 1999). FAIM is an approximately 20 kDa intracellular protein, but a subsequent study identified an alternatively spliced form, termed FAIM-Long (L), which has 22 additional amino acids at the N-terminus (Zhong et al., 2001). Thus, the originally identified FAIM was renamed FAIM-Short (S). FAIM is also termed FAIM1 in some publicly available gene/genome databases. Although two other gene products were confusingly termed FAIM2 (also termed lifeguard) and FAIM3 (also termed TOSO), neither FAIM2 nor FAIM3 are related to FAIM-S and FAIM-L in terms of physiological functions or gene/protein homology. FAIM-S is ubiquitously expressed in the body, but FAIM-L is expressed almost exclusively in the brain and testis (Zhong et al., 2001). Overexpression studies using B lymphocytes showed that FAIM inhibits FAS-mediated apoptosis presumably by enhancing NF-κB activation (Schneider et al., 1999; Kaku and Rothstein, 2009a, b). However, the physiological role of FAIM (hereafter FAIM indicates both FAIM-S and FAIM-L) was unknown for many years, partly because no abnormality was detected in FAIM-deficient mice. It was not until our recent studies that we discovered FAIM-deficient cells are more susceptible to cellular stress (Kaku and Rothstein, 2020). In retrospect, its role might have previously been obscured by the lack of stress in vivarium mouse life.