Abstract
Adenylate kinase 5 (AK5) is one member of the AK family and plays a critical role in maintaining cellular homeostasis. Different from the other AKs, AK5 is almost exclusively expressed in the brain. However, its exact biological functions remain unclear. The aim of the present study is to explore the expression pattern of AK5 in patients with refractory epilepsy and in a chronic pilocarpine-induced epileptic rat model. Using Western blot, immunofluorescence and immunoprecipitation analysis, we found that AK5 protein was mainly expressed in neurons, demonstrated by colocalization with the dendritic marker, MAP2, which were similar to the corresponding controls. However, the expression of AK5 decreased remarkably in epileptic patients and experimental rats. Furthermore, immunoprecipitation analysis showed that the interaction of AK5 with copine VI (CPNE6, a brain specific protein) increased in epileptic patients and rat models. Our results are the first to indicate that the expression of AK5 in epileptic brain tissue may play important roles in epilepsy, especially refractory epilepsy.