The role of UCH-L1 in some activities of nervous system

Abstract

Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) plays an important role in the ubiquitinproteasome system and distributes mostly in the brain. Previous studies showed that the mutation form or reduction of UCH-L1 related to neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease and also involved to the oxidative stress. However the specific role of UCH-L1 on the activities of the nervous system has not yet well been understood. Among several models to study the role of UCH-L1, Drosophila melanogaster one showed several advantages particularly in the study of the neurodegeneration. To clarify the effects of UCH-L1 deficiency in neurons, we used Drosophila with motor and sensory neuron-specific knockdown of dUCH (Drosophila Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase) which is a homolog gene of human UCH-L1. The obtained results showed that the knockdown dUCH decreased the locomotive function in both larval and adult stages of Drosophila, and also gave negative effects to their learning and memorying abilities. These results emphasized the roles of UCH-L1 in the neuronal health and suggested the possibility of using D. melanogaster as model for further studies of disease mechanisms or drug screening.