Long-term brain expression of a synthetic gene encoding the antiinflammatory peptide thymulin

MOREL, GR; BROWN, OA; SOSA, YE; HEREÑÚ, CB; PORTIANSKY, EL; ZUCCOLILLI, GO; GOYA, RG.

Huerta Grande. Cordoba

Taller; 8vo Taller Argentino de Neurociencias.; 2006

Thymulin is a thymic hormone involved in several aspects of intra- and extrathymic T-cell differentiation. Thymulin, which is exclusively produced by the thymic epithelial cells (TEC), consists of a nonapeptide component (termed facteur thymique serique or FTS), coupled in an equimolecular ratio to the ion zinc, which confers biological activity to this molecule. There is increasing evidence that thymulin and thymulin analogs possess antiinflammatory and analgesic activity in the brain, which makes this peptide a molecule of clinical interest. Unfortunately, efforts to clone the gene for thymulin have been unrewarding so far. This situation led us to undertake the design and construction of a synthetic DNA sequence encoding a biologically active analog of thymulin. We report here the utilization of a recombinant adenoviral vector (RAd) to transfer a synthetic gene for thymulin in the substantia nigra (SN) and medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) of rats. We also document that transgenic thymulin has a longer expression in the SN and MBH than the adenovirallytransferred genes for a fusion variant of enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP) or for E. coli â-galactosidase (â-gal), two reporter genes.