Fatty acid-binding protein, brain

Fatty acid-binding protein, brain (FABP7) is a small 132-amino-acid protein that transports hydrophobic ligands during central nervous system development. The protein is essential for establishing the radial glial fiber system, which guides immature neuron migration and cortical layer formation (UniProt: O15540).

FABP7 is expressed in the developing brain and plays a morphogenic role during neural development. While UniProt records no explicitly listed disease associations for this protein, its developmental function in neuronal migration and cortical organization provides mechanistic relevance to neurobiological processes.

In Alzheimer's Disease, FABP7 is significantly upregulated in post-mortem AD brain tissue compared to age-matched controls, with a mean log2 fold-change of 1.31 (Chaparral AD proteomics). This elevation was detected across subcellular fractions from TMT-labeled quantitative proteomics analysis of human tissue. The upregulation may reflect neuroinflammatory or compensatory responses in AD pathology, though the functional significance remains to be determined.