Aberrant cytosolic acyl-CoA thioester hydrolase in hippocampus of patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy

Summary. A series of enzyme alterations has been shown to be associated with several forms of epilepsy, in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE), however, information is limited. It was therefore the aim of the study to determine brain enzyme protein expression using a proteomic screening approach. Hippocampi of controls and patients with drug-resistant MTLE were used for evaluation of protein expression. We applied two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) with mass spectrometrical identification and immunoblotting. 2-DE revealed a remarkably decreased spot identified as cytosolic acyl-CoA thioester hydrolase (BACH; EC 3.1.2.2) in patients with MTLE. Western blotting showed absence of bands at 37kDa in MTLEs using an antibody against mouse BACH and at 140kDa in MTLEs using anti-rat BACH. This study demonstrates that BACHs were deranged in hippocampus of MTLE patients. This finding may well contribute to the understanding of the still elusive pathomechanisms involved in MTLE.J. W. Yang and T. Czech have equally contributed to the paper.