Diacylglycerol kinase beta

Diacylglycerol kinase beta (DGKB) is a lipid-metabolizing enzyme that converts diacylglycerol into phosphatidic acid, thereby regulating the levels of these bioactive second messengers and their respective signaling pathways (UniProt: Q9Y6T7). The enzyme is highly expressed in brain tissue, where it plays a specific role in regulating neuron morphology, including neurite branching and spine formation.

In the context of Alzheimer's Disease, DGKB shows reduced expression in post-mortem AD brain tissue compared to age-matched controls (Chaparral AD proteomics). Across subcellular fractions analyzed by TMT-labeled mass spectrometry, the protein displayed a mean log2 fold-change of −0.46, indicating modest but consistent downregulation in AD tissue.

The functional role of DGKB in neuronal morphogenesis and lipid signaling suggests potential relevance to synaptic dysfunction in AD, though the modest magnitude of downregulation and absence of mechanistic validation in this dataset warrant further investigation of its pathobiological significance.