Mechanism of expression of the rat HCNP precursor protein gene

The hippocampal cholinergic neurostimulating peptide (HCNP), isolated from hippocampal tissue of 10- to 12-day-old rats, enhances the in vitro synthesis of acetylcholine in medial septal tissue explants. The HCNP precursor is a 21 kDa protein that binds hydrophobic ligands and Mg-ATP, and is associated with the opioid-binding protein. We employed an HCNP-precursor cDNA as probe to clone the genomic DNA, used for mapping of the exon-intron structure of the gene. We also determined the nucleotide structure of the promoter region of the rat HCNP precursor protein gene. By using S1 mapping and CAT as a reporter, we found multiple promoters that were aligned in the 5' untranslated region. In addition, the presence of several putative enhancer binding sequences were tested by electrophoresis mobility shift assays. Northern blot analysis revealed that the gene is expressed in a variety of rat tissues and various subregions of the brain. These results suggest that HCNP-precursor gene expression is regulated by a general transactivation factor such as SP1, and that the specific presence of the bioactive HCNP in certain tissues results from post-translational events such as proteolytic processing of the precursor protein, which takes place predominantly in the hippocampus of young rats.