Prion protein (PrPC) localizes stably in lipid rafts microdomains and is able to recruit downstream signal transduction pathways by the interaction with promiscuous partners. Other proteins have the ability to occasionally be recruited to these specialized membrane areas, within multimolecular complexes.
Lipid rafts are signaling microdomains enriched in glycosphingolipids, cholesterol, tyrosine kinase receptors, mono? or heterotrimeric G proteins and GPI?anchored proteins. This dynamic assemblage of several components dissociate and associate rapidly forming, in cell membranes, functional clusters which provide highly efficient lipid–protein modules operating in membrane trafficking and cell signaling. Indeed, lipid rafts are thought to function as platforms that sequestrate specific proteins, permanently or transiently, thus introducing and modulating cell signaling.
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