Kif5b may play a role in impairing mouse memory : a behaviour and cellular study

Abstract

Alzheimer's Disease is one of the most fearsome diseases worldwide. The study of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is broad and many have focused on investigating the various proteins involved in neurons. A popular hypothesis of the cellular mechanism of AD is the accumulation of beta-Amyloid. Kinesin is a large group of motor proteins, which plays an extensive role in mitosis and intracellular cargo transport, including that of the Amyloid Protein Precursor. In the present study we have performed fear conditioning behaviour tests on Kif5b conditional knockout (CKO) mouse. Kif5b CKO mouse shows an impair contextual memory compared to the wild type, but does not display an impaired auditory memory. Heterozygous Kif5b knock out mouse shows no significant difference to the wild type. The study has also generated Kif5b fragments and used them to pull-down proteins in mouse brain lysate. The study has identified Clathrin and alpha-Adaptin as binding partners of Kif5b in mouse neuronal cells. The binding domain of Kif5b for these proteins is between amino acid residue 891-935. Finally this study has made a number of recommendations for further study.