Vol. 55, Issue 3, 521-527, March 1999

Differential Display PCR Reveals Novel Targets for the Mood-Stabilizing Drug Valproate Including the Molecular Chaperone GRP78

Jun-Feng Wang, Christopher Bown, and L. Trevor Young

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Differential display polymerase chain reaction was used to identify genes regulated by the mood-stabilizing drug valproate (VPA). Four differentially displayed valproate-regulated gene fragments were isolated in rat cerebral cortex after i.p. injection of sodium VPA (300 mg/kg) for 3 weeks, and their expression was confirmed by Northern and slot blot analysis in rat cerebral cortex and C6 glioma cells. Sequencing analysis revealed three previously unidentified cDNA fragments in addition to a sequence with 100% homology with a molecular chaperone, 78-kDa glucose-regulated protein (GRP78). VPA treatment did not increase mRNA expression of 70-kDa heat shock protein, which is a related stress-induced molecular chaperone protein. All four candidate genes, including GRP78, showed similar VPA concentration-dependent increases in mRNA abundance. Another commonly prescribed mood-stabilizing anticonvulsant, carbamazepine, also increased GRP78 mRNA expression in C6 glioma cells, whereas lithium had no effect at doses up to 2 mM. Immunoblotting revealed that GRP78 protein levels were also increased in C6 glioma cells treated with VPA under the same conditions. Nuclear runoff analysis showed that VPA increased GRP78 gene transcription. Because GRP78 possesses molecular chaperone activity, binds Ca²⁺ in the endoplasmic reticulum, and protects cells from the deleterious effects of damaged proteins, the present findings suggest that VPA (and possibly carbamazepine) treatment may target one or more of these processes.