Cloning of a leucine-zipper protein recognized by the sera of patients with antibody-associated paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration.

Antibody-associated paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration (the Yo syndrome) is an uncommon disorder in which an immune response is specifically directed against tumor tissue and the cerebellum. Screening of a lambda expression library has resulted in the isolation of cDNA clones that encode the major antigen recognized by serum from these patients. The fusion protein produced by the cDNA clones provides the basis of a simple diagnostic assay for this neurological syndrome. The occurrence of leucine-zipper and zinc-finger motifs in the predicted open reading frame suggests that this protein plays a role in the regulation of gene expression.