Since down-regulation of Pin1 has been described in several neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Huntington's Disease (HD), we investigated its potential role in prion diseases.
Notably, a marked expression of Pin1 was also observed in the substantia nigra of human PD brains along with a high co-localization of Pin1 within dopaminergic neurons.
Immunohistochemical analysis of 194 patients (46 with AD, 43 with Parkinson's disease/dementia with Lewy bodies, 12 with progressive supranuclear palsy/corticobasal degeneration, 36 with frontotemporal lobar degeneration, 21 with motor neuron disease and 34 non-demented (ND) individuals) revealed an increased frequency and severity of PIN1 immunoreactive inclusions in AD as compared to all diagnostic groups (P < 0.001).