%0 Journal Article
%T 5-Lipoxygenase in the Prefrontal Cortex of Suicide Victims
%A Tolga Uz
%A Yogesh Dwivedi
%A Ghanshyam N. Pandey
%A Rosalinda C. Roberts
%A Robert R. Conley
%A Radmila Manev and Hari Manev
%J The Open Neuropsychopharmacology Journal
%D 2008
%I 
%R 10.2174/1876523800801010001]
%X 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX), an enzyme involved in leukotriene synthesis, is expressed in the brain and has been associated with Alzheimer¡¯s disease and depression. Recently, it has been suspected that leukotriene receptor antagonists might be associated with suicide. In this work, we investigated the 5-LOX protein in the brain samples from depressed suicide victims and matching controls. We used Western immunoblotting with an antibody against Ser523-phosphorylated 5-LOX (p5-LOX) to evaluate protein kinase A-mediated 5-LOX phosphorylation, and in addition, an antibody against the total 5-LOX protein. In the total homogenate of the prefrontal cortex samples, 5-LOX content did not differ in the control and suicide groups but p5-LOX was significantly elevated in the suicide samples. The 5-LOX protein content was reduced in the membrane fraction and increased in the cytosol fraction of suicide victims. We propose that further studies of brain 5-LOX are needed to elucidate the functional implications of the protein alterations observed in our present study, and to further explore a putative role of 5-LOX in depression and suicide.
%U http://www.benthamscience.com/open/toneuroppj/articles/V001/1TONEUROPPJ.htm