Comprehensive Proteomics Analysis of Ubiquitin-like Protein UBL3 in the Cerebral Cortex Proposes a New Therapeutic Strategy for Neurodegenerative Diseases

A research group consisting of Dr. Natsumi Ageta-Ishihara from the Faculty of Science at Toho University, Dr. Hiroshi Ageta, and Professor Kunihiro Tsuchida from the Center for Medical Science at Fujita Health University identified 35 binding molecules for the novel post-translational modification factor ubiquitin-like 3 (UBL3) in the cerebral cortex. Among these binding molecules, many proteins were found to be involved in RNA metabolism. Furthermore, they demonstrated that the neurodegenerative disease-related proteins fused in sarcoma and hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase 1, which are involved in RNA metabolism, also bind to UBL3. These findings suggest that the contribution of UBL3 to RNA metabolism may be a new therapeutic target for neurodegenerative diseases.
This research was published in the journal Molecular Brain on August 15, 2024.