Secreted calmodulin-like skin protein ameliorates scopolamine-induced memory impairment.

Humanin, a short bioactive peptide, inhibits cell death in a variety of cell-based death models through Humanin receptors in vitro. In vivo, Humanin ameliorates both muscarinic receptor antagonist-induced memory impairment in normal mice and memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease (AD)-relevant mouse models including aged transgenic mice expressing a familial AD-linked gene. Recently, calmodulin-like skin protein (CLSP) has been shown to be secreted from skin tissues, contain a region minimally similar to the core region of Humanin, and inhibit AD-related neuronal death through the heterotrimeric Humanin receptor on the cell surface in vitro. As CLSP is much more potent than Humanin and efficiently transported through blood circulation across the blood-brain barrier to the central nervous system, CLSP is considered as a physiological agonist that binds to the heterotrimeric Humanin receptor and triggers the Humanin-induced signals in central nervous system. However, it remains unknown whether CLSP ameliorates memory impairment in mouse dementia models as Humanin does. In this study, we show that recombinant CLSP, administered intracerebroventricularly or intraperitoneally, ameliorates scopolamine-induced dementia in mice.