Amphiphysin (AMPH)

Amphiphysin is a protein associated with the cytoplasmic surface of synaptic vesicles. A subset of patients with stiff-man syndrome who were also affected by breast cancer are positive for autoantibodies against this protein. Alternate splicing of this gene results in two transcript variants encoding different isoforms. Additional splice variants have been described, but their full length sequences have not been determined.Amphiphysin is a brain-enriched protein with an N-terminal lipid interaction, dimerisation and membrane bending BAR domain, a middle clathrin and adaptor binding domain and a C-terminal SH3 domain. In the brain, its primary function is thought to be the recruitment of dynamin to sites of clathrin-mediated endocytosis.