Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:1.6.5.2 (NQO1)
 6,196 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Calcineurin, a multifunctional Ca2+ (divalent cations)-dependent calmodulin-stimulated phosphoprotein phosphatase, has been reported to be present in the striatal neurons which project to the globus pallidus and the substantia nigra. In the present study, we examined what types of cells in the rat striatum express calcineurin. The calcineurin-positive neurons were of medium size (mean diameter of 16 microns) and constituted about 60-70% of the total neuronal population in the striatum. Under light microscopy, the calcineurin-positive neurons had round, triangular, or polygonal cell bodies with a relatively small amount of cytoplasm. Electron microscopic examination of 20 randomly selected striatal calcineurin-immunoreactive neurons revealed that their nuclei did not show any invaginations or intranuclear inclusions. The calcineurin-positive neurons were characterized by Golgi impregnation as the densely spinous type. On the other hand, it was demonstrated that calcineurin-positive neurons are a separate population from the diisopropylfluorophosphate-acetylcholinesterase-positive cells or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate diaphorase-positive cells, by means of the combination of immunocytochemistry and enzyme histochemistry. In addition, simultaneous localization of calcineurin and substance P in a single cell was observed in some striatal neurons using a double immunostaining method. On the basis of these findings, it was considered that most calcineurin-immunoreactive neurons in the rat striatum may be classified as medium-size densely spiny neurons.
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PMID:Morphological characterization of the rat striatal neurons expressing calcineurin immunoreactivity. 244 61

Aging is often associated with decline of memory function. Aged animals, like humans, can naturally develop memory impairments and thus represent a useful model to investigate genes involved in long-term memory formation that are differentially expressed between aged memory-impaired (AI) and aged memory-unimpaired (AU) animals following stimulation in a spatial memory task. We found that alterations in hippocampal gene expression of transthyretin (TTR), calcineurin, and NAD(P)H dehydrogenase quinone 2 (NQO2) were associated with memory deficits in aged animals. Decreased TTR gene expression could be attributed at least partially to diminish activity of C/EBP immediate-early gene cascade initiated by CREB since protein levels of C/EBP, a transcription factor regulating both TTR and NQO2 expression, was decreased in AI animals. Memory deficits were also found during aging in mice lacking TTR, a retinol transporter known to prevent amyloid-beta aggregation and plaque formation as seen in Alzheimer's disease. Treatment with retinoic acid reversed cognitive deficits in these knock-out mice as well as in aged rats. Our study provides genetic, behavioural and molecular evidence that TTR is involved in the maintenance of normal cognitive processes during aging by acting on the retinoid signalling pathway.
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PMID:Transthyretin: a key gene involved in the maintenance of memory capacities during aging. 1751 93