UCH-L1*

Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1™) hydrolyzes small C-terminal adducts of ubiquitin to generate the ubiquitin monomer. It is also called PARK5 or neuronalspecific protein gene product 9.5. Expressed predominantly in neurons, UCH-L1 is one of the most abundant brain protein, representing 1 to 2% of total soluble brain protein. In vivo, UCH-L1 has been shown to be involved in the regulation of the ubiquitin pool, apoptosis, learning and memory, and its absence in mice because of spontaneous intragenic deletions yields phenotypes with neurological defects.3 A point mutation (I93M) and a polymorphism (S18Y) in this gene have been shown to associate with Parkinson’s disease. Recently, UCH-L1 has been proposed as a candidate biomarker for brain injury. UCH-L1 can be released from injured neurons and flow into the cerebrospinal fluid and circulating blood .

*UCH-L1™ is a registered trademark of Banyan Biomarkers