Research Paper Volume 4, Issue 12 pp 923—931

P73 and age-related diseases: is there any link with Parkinson Disease?

Francesca Grespi1, , Gerry Melino1,2, ,

  • 1 Medical Research Council, Toxicology Unit, Leicester University, Leicester LE1 9HN, UK
  • 2 Biochemistry Laboratory, IDI-IRCCS, and University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy

Received: October 29, 2012       Accepted: December 17, 2012       Published: December 18, 2012      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.100515
How to Cite

Abstract

P73 is a member of the p53 transcription factors family with a prominent role in neurobiology, affecting brain development as well as controlling neuronal survival. Accordingly, p73 has been identified as key player in many age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, neuroAIDS and Niemann-Pick type C disease. Here we investigate possible correlations of p73 with Parkinson disease. Tyrosine hydroxylase is a crucial player in Parkinson disease being the enzyme necessary for dopamine synthesis. In this work we show that levels of tyrosine hydroxylase can be influenced by p73. We also demonstrate that p73 can protect against tyrosine hydroxylase depletion in an in vitro model of Parkinson disease.

Abbreviations

Th: tyrosine hydroxylase; TA: TAp73; ΔN: ΔNp73; 6-OHDA: 6-hydroxydopamine; PD: Parkinson disease.