Neuronal pentraxin-2 is a protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

 that in humans is encoded by the NPTX2 gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

.

Function

This gene encodes a member of the family of neuronal petraxins

Pentraxins

Pentraxins, also known as pentaxins, are an evolutionary conserved family of proteins characterised by containing a pentraxin protein domain. Proteins of the pentraxin family are involved in acute immunological responses...

, synaptic proteins that are related to C-reactive protein

C-reactive protein

C-reactive protein is a protein found in the blood, the levels of which rise in response to inflammation...

. This protein is involved in excitatory synapse formation. It also plays a role in clustering of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA

AMPA

AMPA is a compound that is a specific agonist for the AMPA receptor, where it mimics the effects of the neurotransmitter glutamate....

)-type glutamate receptors at established synapses, resulting in non-apoptotic cell death of dopaminergic nerve cells.

Clinical significance

Up-regulation of this gene in Parkinson disease (PD) tissues suggests that the protein may be involved in the pathology of PD.

Further reading