FORIPS

BAVARIAN RESEARCH NETWORK INDUCED PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS

Microtubule-associated Protein Tau as a Pathogenic Factor of Idiopathic Parkinson’s Syndrome (IPS)

Field of work:

Basis of the ForIPS consortium is a platform with human inducable pluripotent stem cell lines (IPSC) of patients with idiopathic Parkinson disease (iPD) and healthy controls. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in specific genes, which define an individual’s risk to acquire a particular neurodegenerative disorder. GWAS identified the risk SNP rs 8070723 in the H1 Haplotype of the MAPT gene of the Tau protein, as a major risk factor for iPD. This subproject addresses the molecular pathophysiologic mechanisms; how the risk SNP rs 8070723 in the MAPT gene favours the development of the synocleopathy in iPD. We will investigate, if the risk SNP rs8070723 changes the expression pattern of Tau and the posttranslational Tau motif in inducable neural progenitor cell lines. Furthermore, its influence on the metabolism of a-synuclein will be analysed.

Main goal of the present subproject is to gain more information on molecular pathophysiologic mechanisms, by which risk SNP rs 8070723in the MAPT gene leads to a-synuclein pathology in iPD.

Project partners: