A monoclonal antibody against synaptic AChE: a useful tool for detecting apoptotic cells.

Wei Su, Jun Wu, Wei-Yuan Ye, Xue-Jun Zhang

Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 YueYang Road, Shanghai, China.

Chemico-biological interactions 2008 Sep 25

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The classical function of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is to terminate synaptic transmission at cholinergic synapses by rapidly hydrolyzing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh). Non-classical functions of AChE involve accelerating the assembly of Abeta peptide into amyloid fibrils and participating in haematopoiesis and neurite growth. Although numerous antibodies have been raised against AChE, many researchers have questioned their reliability to identify the AChE in situ, especially with the regard to its non-classical roles. Researchers attended the Ninth International Meeting on Cholinesterase raised this question by showing different Western blot patterns of AChE detected by different Abs. Producing more effective and reliable Abs for measuring AChE in vivo or in situ has become an important issue in many scientific fields. In this paper, we introduce a monoclonal antibody raised against synaptic AChE that we identified by Western blot assays, immunofluorescent staining and immunoprecipitation of AChE, and mass spectrometry. Our results strongly demonstrate the specificity of our monoclonal antibody to recognize synaptic AChE; hence our antibody can be used as an effective tool to study the various functions of AChE. Since the apoptosis-related AChE was its synaptic form, our antibody can be used as a tool to detect apoptotic cells.

Citation

Wei Su, Jun Wu, Wei-Yuan Ye, Xue-Jun Zhang. A monoclonal antibody against synaptic AChE: a useful tool for detecting apoptotic cells. Chemico-biological interactions. 2008 Sep 25;175(1-3):101-7