Thursday, October 6, 2016

Preprint describes new fly model of Saposin deficiency

A Saposin deficiency model in Drosophila: lysosomal storage, progressive neurodegeneration, sensory physiological decline and defective calcium homeostasis

J Hindle, Sarita Hebbar, Dominik Schwudke, Christopher J Elliott, Sean T Sweeney
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/078725

From the abstract: "Saposin deficiency is a childhood neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder (LSD) that can cause premature death within three months of life. Saposins are activator proteins that promote the function of lysosomal hydrolases in the degradation of sphingolipids. There are four saposin proteins in humans, which are encoded by the prosaposin gene. Mutations causing an absence of individual saposins or the whole prosaposin gene lead to distinct LSDs due to the storage of different classes of sphingolipids. The pathological events leading to neuronal dysfunction induced by lysosomal storage of sphingolipids are as yet poorly defined. We have generated and characterised a Drosophila model of saposin deficiency that shows striking similarities to the human diseases. ..."

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