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DREAM: a multifunctional transcriptional regulator

FU Zi-Bing¹, DUAN Xu-Bo^1,2, LI Li-Na¹, LEI Xiao-Kang¹, JIANG Ye¹, Wang Chen¹, XU Han-Xiao^1,2, ZHANG Yin-Lian¹, JIANG Jiao-Hua¹, CHAI Rui-Chao¹, JIA Xi-Hua¹, YU Albert Cheung Hoi^1,*

¹Laboratory of Functional Study of Astrocytes, Peking University Neuroscience Research Institute, Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University; Key Laboratory for Neuroscience, Ministry of Education; National Health and Family Planning Commission, Beijing 100191, China；²Department of Human Anatomy, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang 550025, China

Abstract

DREAM (downstream regulatory element antagonist modulator), Calsenilin and KChIP3 (potassium channel interacting protein 3) belong to the neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) superfamily, which transduces the intracellular calcium signaling into a variety of activities. They are encoded by the same gene locus, but have distinct subcellular locations. DREAM was first found to interact with DRE (downstream regulatory element) site in the vicinity of the promoter of prodynorphin gene to suppress gene transcription. Calcium can disassemble this interaction by binding reversibly to DREAM protein on its four EF-hand motifs. Apart from having calcium dependent DRE site binding, DREAM can also interact with other transcription factors, such as cAMP responsive element binding protein (CREB), CREB-binding protein (CBP) and cAMP responsive element modulator (CREM), by this concerted actions, DREAM extends the gene pool under its control. DREAM is predominantly expressed in central nervous system with its highest level in cerebellum, and accumulating evidence demonstrated that DREAM might play important roles in pain sensitivity. Novel findings have shown that DREAM is also involved in learning and memory processes, Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. This mini-review provides a brief introduction of its discovery history and protein structure properties, focusing on the mechanism of DREAM nuclear translocation and gene transcription regulation functions.

Key words: DREAM; transcriptional regulation ; pain ; DRE site ; calcium signal

Received: 2017-05-07　　Accepted: 2017-08-18

Corresponding author: 于常海　　E-mail: achy@hsc.pku.edu.cn

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2017.0053

Citing This Article：

FU Zi-Bing, DUAN Xu-Bo, LI Li-Na, LEI Xiao-Kang, JIANG Ye, Wang Chen, XU Han-Xiao, ZHANG Yin-Lian, JIANG Jiao-Hua, CHAI Rui-Chao, JIA Xi-Hua, YU Albert Cheung Hoi. DREAM: a multifunctional transcriptional regulator. Acta Physiol Sin 2017; 69 (5): 703-714 (in Chinese with English abstract).