Commercially available Mfsd2a antibody (Abcam, #ab105399) is non-specific
Description
A recent article was published last month in Science Advances by Jia Zhou et al entitled “Zika virus degrades the ω-3 fatty acid transporter Mfsd2a in brain microvascular endothelial cells and impairs lipid homeostasis.” The conclusions that Zika virus infection downregulates Mfsd2a protein levels at the blood-brain barrier rely on the quality of the Mfsd2a antibody that they used, which was purchased from Abcam (#ab105399). The Silver lab discovered the function of Mfsd2a as a lysolipid transporter [1] and have published our findings using our own validated antibodies to Mfsd2a [1-9] that we have provided to other researchers who have confirmed their specificity [10-12]. It is disconcerting that there are more than 10 published articles in the literature that have relied on ab105399 for data generation without proof of validation of specificity. This figure shows a side-by-side test of ab105399 versus our published antibody against Mfsd2a, where we show that ab105399 does not detect Mfsd2a with any specificity. Note: #ab105399 appears to be distributed by Invitrogen (#PA5-21049), Genetex (#GTX85147), ProSci incorporated (#6025), and LSBio (#LS-B5348). References: 1. Nguyen, L.N., et al., Mfsd2a is a transporter for the essential omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid. Nature, 2014. 509(7501): p. 503-6. 2. Alakbarzade, V., et al., A partially inactivating mutation in the sodium-dependent lysophosphatidylcholine transporter MFSD2A causes a non-lethal microcephaly syndrome. Nat Genet, 2015. 47(7): p. 814-7. 3. Berger, J.H., M.J. Charron, and D.L. Silver, Major facilitator superfamily domain-containing protein 2a (MFSD2A) has roles in body growth, motor function, and lipid metabolism. PLoS One, 2012. 7(11): p. e50629. 4. Chan, J.P., et al., The lysolipid transporter Mfsd2a regulates lipogenesis in the developing brain. PLoS Biol, 2018. 16(8): p. e2006443. 5. Guemez-Gamboa, A., et al., Inactivating mutations in MFSD2A, required for omega-3 fatty acid transport in brain, cause a lethal microcephaly syndrome. Nat Genet, 2015. 47(7): p. 809-13. 6. Harel, T., et al., Homozygous mutation in MFSD2A, encoding a lysolipid transporter for docosahexanoic acid, is associated with microcephaly and hypomyelination. Neurogenetics, 2018. 19(4): p. 227-235. 7. Piccirillo, A.R., et al., The Lysophosphatidylcholine Transporter MFSD2A Is Essential for CD8(+) Memory T Cell Maintenance and Secondary Response to Infection. J Immunol, 2019. 203(1): p. 117-126. 8. Quek, D.Q., et al., Structural insights into the transport mechanism of the human sodium-dependent lysophosphatidylcholine transporter Mfsd2a. J Biol Chem, 2016. 9. Wong, B.H., et al., Mfsd2a Is a Transporter for the Essential omega-3 Fatty Acid Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) in Eye and Is Important for Photoreceptor Cell Development. J Biol Chem, 2016. 291(20): p. 10501-14. 10. Wang, Y., et al., Elife, 2019. 8. 11. Vanlandewijck, M., et al., Nature, 2018. 12. Byrne, L.C., et al., Mol Ther, 2015. 23(2): p. 290-6.