Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Localization of Plasma Membrane and Intracellular Neuronal Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Using Quantitative Imaging in Mammalian Cells
Published on: December 19, 2025
[Polymorphisms of neural nicotinic cholinergic receptor alpha 4 gene of Chinese]
Li-mei Zhang1, Biao Chen, Xiu-li Feng
1Department of Neurology, Beijing Institute of Geriatrics, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, P. R. China. limeizhang70@hotmail.com
Objective:
To screen for polymorphisms in alpha 4 subunit (principal subunit of nAChR) gene (CHRNA4).
Methods:
DNA was extracted from leukocytes of all subjects including 100 healthy senior people and 100 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The exons and adjacent intron regions of CHRNA4 were amplified with PCR. SNPs were screened by denatured high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) techniques and restriction fragment length polymorphisms. Potential mutations were confirmed by sequencing.
Results:
Total 10 polymorphisms were detected and identified in coding and adjacent intron regions of nAChR alpha 4 gene, that are 420C/T (0.873/0.127), 870C/T (0.828/0.172), 1440A/C (0.858/0.142), 1860C/T (0.738/0.262), 1890C/T (0.605/0.395), intron 5 +14T/C (0.553/0.447), intron 2 +22G/A (0.873/0.127), intron 3 +182 Del22bp (0.813/0.187), 1758C/T and 1809C/T (reference for coding sequence is GenBank SNPs 000744), of which the last three are novel mutations. PD patients appeared higher frequency of deletion in intron 3+182(0.235) than normal controls (0.140)(P=0.015).
Conclusion:
nAChR alpha 4 gene is polymorphic. PD patients take higher frequency of intron3+182 Del 22 bp.
More Related Videos
04:22Biomarker Identification for Gender Specificity of Alzheimer's Disease Based on the Glial Transcriptome Profiles
Published on: May 20, 2024
08:47Spectral Confocal Imaging of Fluorescently tagged Nicotinic Receptors in Knock-in Mice with Chronic Nicotine Administration
Published on: February 10, 2012
Related Concept Videos
Cholinergic Receptors: Nicotinic
There are two types of nicotinic receptors: neuromuscular (NM/NM/N1) and neuronal (NN/NN/N2). The two families differ based on their location and selectivity to...
Cholinergic Receptors: Muscarinic
The subtypes M1, M3, and M5 couple with the Gq subunit and activate the phospholipase C (PLC) activity, mobilizing intracellular Ca2+. Activation...
Pharmacogenetics of Drug Targets: β₂-Adrenergic Receptors, Apo E, Thymidylate Synthase
Exon Recombination
Exon shuffling follows “splice frame rules.” Each exon has three reading...
Direct-Acting Cholinergic Agonists: Chemistry and Structure-Activity Relationship
The direct-acting...
Cholinergic Antagonists: Chemistry and Structure-Activity Relationship