Vigilin

Vigilin (HDLBP) is a 1268-amino-acid protein that appears to play a role in cellular sterol metabolism, functioning to protect cells from cholesterol over-accumulation (UniProt: Q00341). The protein's precise molecular mechanisms and tissue distribution remain incompletely characterized in the provided data.

Vigilin's involvement in sterol homeostasis suggests relevance to lipid metabolism pathways, which are critical for neuronal function and myelin maintenance. UniProt reports no curated disease associations for this protein in its primary annotations.

In Alzheimer's disease, vigilin is down-regulated in human post-mortem AD brain tissue compared to age-matched controls, with a mean log2 fold-change of −0.38 across subcellular fractions measured by TMT-labeled proteomics (Chaparral AD proteomics). The modest downward direction may reflect disrupted lipid homeostasis in AD pathology, though further investigation is needed to establish functional significance.