JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

Abstract

Since the time of its discovery in 1982 from pig brain, Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been a topic of great interest for the researchers specially for its role in various neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease and also various neuropsychiatric disorders like Schizophrenia, bipolar mood disorder (1) . BDNF is a 14 k Da basic protein (pI=9.99) of 252 amino acids (AAs). It is synthesized as a 30 k Da precursor molecule which has got 18 AAs long hydrophobic signal sequence and a prosequence of 112 AAs containing, Nglycosylation site. BDNF has got 50% analogy with nerve growth factors (NGF), neurotropins; NT-3, NT4, and NT-5. BDNF gene is located on human chromosome 11 p and consists of four 5’exons (I-IV) with distinct promoter site and one 3’exons (V). Eight distinct BDNF mRNA are transcribed which are selectively expressed in neural and extraneural tissues. Transcripts that contain exons I-III express predominantly in brain, whereas transcripts with exon IV are expressed in lung and heart (2-3) .