Background information
SLITRK family proteins are integral membrane proteins that have a C-terminal domain that is partially similar to TRK neurotrophin receptor proteins and two leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domains that are similar to those of SLIT proteins. SLITRK4 (SLIT and NTRK-like protein 4) is a 837 amino acid single-pass type I membrane protein that contains 18 LRR (leucine-rich) repeats and is expressed in neural tissues, specifically in the thalamus, hypothalamus, subventricular zone, CA3 region of the hippocampus and cortical plate. SLITRK4 may be upregulated in some astrocytic brain tumors such as glioblastomas, astrocytomas and primitive neuroectodermal tumors. As compared with its family member SLITRK2, SLITRK4 only weakly suppresses neurite outgrowth. A study using genome-wide transcriptional profiling suggested that the gene encoding SLITRK4, as well as the ARL5B and PLA2G7 genes, may be involved in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.
