Alzheimer's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Alzheimer's Disease, including details on diagnosis, memory loss, heredity, treatment, medication.

C/T conversion alters interleukin-1A promoter function in a human astrocyte cell line.

Wei X, Chen X, Fontanilla C, Zhao L, Liang Z, Dodel R, Hampel H, Farlow M, Du Y

Department of Neurology, Indiana University School of Medicine, 975 West Walnut Street, IB457, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA.

Recently, association of an interleukin-1A promoter polymorphism (-889, thymine/thymine (T/T)) with Alzheimer's disease was reported, suggesting that this cytokine may play an important role in disease development. To understand the mechanism underlying the interleukin-1A promoter's role in Alzheimer's disease, a study comparing promoter function of an interleukin-1A polymorphism was performed in the SVG astroglia cell line. The effects of thymine and cytosine on transcriptional activity of the interleukin-1A promoter were analyzed by testing luciferase-reporter activity in transfected SVG cells. Our results demonstrate that cytosine/thymine conversion increases activity of the interleukin-1A promoter in SVG cells. Both sodium salicylate and lovastatin are able to block induced promoter activities in astroglial cells. Induced promoter activity by the polymorphism (T/T) may result in the upregulation of interleukin-1alpha protein and "cytokine cycle" amplification, which may promote disease development.

Published 19 February 2007 in Life Sci, 80(12): 1152-6.
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