Gene profiling within the orexin-producing neurons

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and attacks of muscle atonia triggered by strong emotions (cataplexy). The best biological marker of narcolepsy is orexin deficiency with dramatic loss in hypothalamic orexin-producing neurons. Together with a tight HLA and T-cell receptor alpha(5) association, narcolepsy is believed to be autoimmune although all attempts to prove it have failed.To characterize orexin specific peptides we produced a transgenic mouse model to access to the orexin neurons transcription profile. We generated BAC-based transgenic mice by replacing the orexin coding sequence by a flag-tagged poly(A) binding protein (Pabp1) cDNA sequence. The basis of this construct is to take advantage of the ability of Pabp1 to bind to the poly(A) tails of mRNAs in vivo. Thus mRNAs from orexin cells are expected to be enriched by cross-linking them to the flag-tagged PABP and then co-immunoprecipitating this complex with a specific anti-flag monoclonal antibody.

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Cvetkovic-Lopes V, Bayer L, Dorsaz S, Maret S, Pradervand S, Dauvilliers Y, Lecendreux M, Lammers GJ, Donjacour CE, Du Pasquier RA, Pfister C, Petit B, Hor H, Mühlethaler M, Tafti M