Hip-1
Encyclopedia
Huntingtin Interacting Protein or Hip-1 for short is a protein that interacts with the huntingtin
Huntingtin
The Huntingtin gene, also called HTT or HD gene, is the IT15 gene which codes for a protein called the huntingtin protein...

 protein. It is known to contain a domain
Protein domain
A protein domain is a part of protein sequence and structure that can evolve, function, and exist independently of the rest of the protein chain. Each domain forms a compact three-dimensional structure and often can be independently stable and folded. Many proteins consist of several structural...

 homologous to the death effector domain
Death effector domain
The death-effector domain is a protein interaction domain found to regulate a variety of cellular signalling pathways. The DED domain is found in inactive procaspases and proteins that regulate caspase activation in the apoptosis cascade such as FAS-associating death domain-containing protein...

s (DED) found on proteins involved in apoptosis
Apoptosis
Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death that may occur in multicellular organisms. Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes and death. These changes include blebbing, cell shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and chromosomal DNA fragmentation...

. It is believed that accumulation of high levels of the free form of this protein (free as in dissociated from the huntingtin and free to bind other key protein(s)) in the cell is one of the mechanisms by which neuron
Neuron
A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous...

 cell death is caused in Huntington's Disease
Huntington's disease
Huntington's disease, chorea, or disorder , is a neurodegenerative genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and leads to cognitive decline and dementia. It typically becomes noticeable in middle age. HD is the most common genetic cause of abnormal involuntary writhing movements called chorea...

 (via the caspase
Caspase
Caspases, or cysteine-aspartic proteases or cysteine-dependent aspartate-directed proteases are a family of cysteine proteases that play essential roles in apoptosis , necrosis, and inflammation....

-3 route). The role of Hip-1 in caspase mediated cell death remains unclear.

Huntingtin interacting protein 1 (HIP1) was first identified by Wanker et al. in 1997. HIP1 was found to bind to Htt in an N-terminal dependent manner, and co-localise with Htt in the CNS although the nature of this interaction with respect to muHtt was not identified. It has since been found that the CAG expansion seen with muHtt results in decreased binding affinity for HIP1, thus causing disruption of HIP1’s usual function, and also an increased in free HIP1. It is likely that this decreased affinity plays a role in mediating HD pathogenesis, due to loss of cytoskeletal integrity and induction of apoptosis. HIP1’s pro apoptotic effect may involve activation of caspase-8 and a novel HIP1 protein interactor HIPPI. HIP1’s non-pathological activity includes clathrin assembly via interaction with clathrin light chains. HIP1 is the human homologue of Sla2p, a membrane protein in the periphery. Sla2p is an actin-binding protein involved in endocytosis, thus indicating HIP1 in this role. Further details suggesting an important role for Hip-1 in endocytosis comes from binding studies looking at Hip-1 binding to actin. Actin binding by Hip-1 is altered depending on whether clathrin is also bound to Hip-1.

HIP1 has also been found to be overexpressed in some cancers including a subset of colorectal and prostate cancers. This is of specific interest because prostate cancer disease progression involves altered transcription/expression of the androgen receptor (AR). The AR is a nuclear hormone receptor transcription factor that contains polyglutamine repeats. In 2005 Mills and colleagues showed that HIP1 is able to regulate transcription of hormone receptors via the androgen response element (ARE) and also alters the rate of degradation of the AR. It is likely that HIP1 is also able to regulate, or at least interact with proteins that also possess the ARE.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK