Volume 40, Issue 12 pp. 1039-1047

Casein kinase II interacts with prion protein in vitro and forms complex with native prion protein in vivo

Jianming Chen

Jianming Chen

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Chen Gao

Chen Gao

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Qi Shi

Qi Shi

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Guirong Wang

Guirong Wang

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Yanjun Lei

Yanjun Lei

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Bing Shan

Bing Shan

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Baoyun Zhang

Baoyun Zhang

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Chenfang Dong

Chenfang Dong

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Song Shi

Song Shi

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Xin Wang

Xin Wang

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Chan Tian

Chan Tian

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Jun Han

Jun Han

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

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Xiaoping Dong

Corresponding Author

Xiaoping Dong

State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China

*Corresponding author: Tel/Fax, 86-10-83534616; E-mail, [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
First published: 16 December 2008
Citations: 1

This work was supported by the grants from the National Science and Technology Task Force Project (No. 2006BAD06A13-2), the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2007 CB3 10505), the Institution Technique R&D Grand (2008EG150300) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 30571672, 30500018, 30771914 and 30800975)

Abstract

The most essential and crucial step during the pathogenesis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy is the conformational change of cellular prion protein to pathologic isoform. Casein kinase II (CK2) is a ubiquitously expressed and evolutionarily conserved pleiotropic protein kinase that is essential for viability. To explore the possible molecular interaction between CK2 and prion protein (PrP), the full-length sequences of human CK2α and CK2β complementary DNA were amplified with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction using the total messenger RNA from cell line SH-SY5Y as the template; then, the fusion proteins histidine-CK2α and glutathione S-transferase-histidine-CK2β were expressed in Escherichia coli. The interaction between CK2 and PrP was evaluated with co-immunoprecipitation and pull-down assays. The results demonstrated that recombinant PrP bound specifically with CK2α, but not with CK2β. The native CK2 and PrP in hamster brains interacted with each other, forming protein complexes. Three different glycosylated forms of PrP (diglycosylated, monoglycosylated and unglycosylated PrP) from normal brains interacted with the CK2α subunit, though the unglycosylated PrP seemed to have a stronger binding ability with CK2α subunit. The domain responsible for interacting with CK2α was located at the C-terminal segment of PrP (residues 91–231). This study proposed reliable experimental data for the molecular interaction between PrP and CK2α (both in recombinant and native categories), scientific clues for further assessing the potential biological significance of the PrP-CK2 interaction, and the possible role of CK2 in the pathogenesis of prion diseases.

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