polypyrimidine tract-binding protein

{{Short description|Protein family}}

{{cs1 config|name-list-style=vanc|display-authors=3}}

{{infobox protein

|Name=polypyrimidine tract binding protein 1

|caption=

|image=

|width=

|HGNCid=9583

|Symbol=PTBP1

|AltSymbols=PTB

|EntrezGene=5725

|OMIM=600693

|RefSeq=NM_002819

|UniProt=P26599

|PDB=

|ECnumber=

|Chromosome=19

|Arm=p

|Band=13.3

|LocusSupplementaryData=

}}

{{infobox protein

|Name= polypyrimidine tract binding protein 2

|caption=

|image=

|width=

|HGNCid=17662

|Symbol=PTBP2

|AltSymbols=

|EntrezGene=58155

|OMIM=608449

|RefSeq=NM_021190

|UniProt=Q9UKA9

|PDB=

|ECnumber=

|Chromosome=1

|Arm=p

|Band=21.3

|LocusSupplementaryData=-22.1

}}

Polypyrimidine tract-binding protein, also known as PTB or hnRNP I, is an RNA-binding protein. PTB functions mainly as a splicing regulator, although it is also involved in alternative 3' end processing, mRNA stability and RNA localization.{{cite journal | vauthors = Valcárcel J, Gebauer F | s2cid = 13820693 | title = Post-transcriptional regulation: the dawn of PTB | journal = Current Biology | volume = 7 | issue = 11 | pages = R705-8 | date = November 1997 | pmid = 9382788 | doi = 10.1016/S0960-9822(06)00361-7 | doi-access = free | bibcode = 1997CBio....7R.705V }} Two 2020 studies have shown that depleting PTB mRNA in astrocytes can convert these astrocytes to functional neurons.{{cite journal | vauthors = Zhou H, Su J, Hu X, Zhou C, Li H, Chen Z, Xiao Q, Wang B, Wu W, Sun Y, Zhou Y, Tang C, Liu F, Wang L, Feng C, Liu M, Li S, Zhang Y, Xu H, Yao H, Shi L, Yang H | s2cid = 215514410 | title = Glia-to-Neuron Conversion by CRISPR-CasRx Alleviates Symptoms of Neurological Disease in Mice | journal = Cell | volume = 181 | issue = 3 | pages = 590–603.e16 | date = April 2020 | pmid = 32272060 | doi = 10.1016/j.cell.2020.03.024 | doi-access = free }} {{cite journal | vauthors = Qian H, Kang X, Hu J, Zhang D, Liang Z, Meng F, Zhang X, Xue Y, Maimon R, Dowdy SF, Devaraj NK, Zhou Z, Mobley WC, Cleveland DW, Fu XD | s2cid = 220051280 | title = Reversing a model of Parkinson's disease with in situ converted nigral neurons | journal = Nature | volume = 582 | issue = 7813 | pages = 550–556 | date = June 2020 | pmid = 32581380 | pmc = 7521455| doi = 10.1038/s41586-020-2388-4 | bibcode = 2020Natur.582..550Q }} These studies also show that such a treatment can be applied to the substantia nigra of mice models of Parkinson's disease in order to convert astrocytes to dopaminergic neurons and as a consequence restore motor function in these mice.