Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.1.3.16 (calcineurin)
17,112 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Molecular signaling pathways linking increases in skeletal muscle usage to alterations in muscle size have not been identified. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that calcineurin, a calcium-regulated phosphatase recently implicated in the signaling of some forms of cardiomyopathic growth, is required to induce skeletal muscle hypertrophy and muscle fiber type conversions associated with functional overload in vivo. Administration of the specific calcineurin inhibitors cyclosporin (CsA) or FK506 to mice, for which the fast plantaris muscle was overloaded for 1-4 weeks, prevented the rapid doubling of mass and individual fiber size and the 4-20-fold increase in the number of slow fibers that characterize this condition. CsA treatment influenced the expression of muscle myofibrillar protein genes in a way reflective of fiber phenotype transformations but only in the long term of the overload condition, suggesting that the control of this growth response by calcineurin is not limited to the transcriptional activation of these muscle-specific genes. Clinically, these results provide insight to the post-surgical muscle wasting and weakness observed in recovering transplant recipients administered therapeutic dosages of these immunosuppressants.
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PMID:Calcineurin is required for skeletal muscle hypertrophy. 1041 11

To elucidate the molecular basis of muscle atrophy, we have performed the serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) method with control and immobilized muscles of 10 rats. The genes that expressed >0.5% in muscle are involved in the following three functions: 1) contraction (troponin I, C and T; myosin light chain 1-3; actin; tropomyosin; and parvalbumin), 2) energy metabolism (cytochrome c oxidase I and III, creatine kinase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-dehydrogenase, phosphoglycerate mutase, ATPase 6, and aldolase A), and 3) housekeeping (lens epithelial protein). Muscle atrophy appears to be caused by changes in mRNA levels of specific regulators of proteolysis, protein synthesis, and contractile apparatus assembling, such as polyubiquitin, elongation factor 2, and nebulin. Immobilization has produced a decrease more than threefold in gene expression of enzymes involved in energy metabolism, especially ATPase, cytochrome c oxidase, NADH dehydrogenase, and protein phosphatase 1. Differential gene expressions of selenoprotein W and uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase, which can be involved in oxidative stress, were also observed. Other genes with various functions, such as cholesterol metabolism and growth factors, were also differentially expressed. Moreover, novel genes regulated by immobilization were discovered. Thus, the current study allows a better understanding of global muscle characteristics and the molecular mechanisms of sedentarity and sarcopenia.
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PMID:Characterization of control and immobilized skeletal muscle: an overview from genetic engineering. 1125 86

Nerve activity controls muscle contractile function and muscle gene expression. Although excitation-contraction coupling is well characterized, excitation-transcription coupling is still poorly understood. Pharmacological and genetic approaches have been used to dissect the signaling pathways that mediate the effect of nerve activity on muscle fiber type and size. In particular, the role of calcineurin has recently been the subject of intensive investigation and debate. The identification of the transduction pathways involved in neuromuscular signaling has implications for the development of new therapeutic strategies to prevent muscle wasting and loss of muscle power resulting from aging, disuse and neuromuscular disorders.
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PMID:Calcineurin signaling and neural control of skeletal muscle fiber type and size. 1245 75

Muscle atrophy results primarily from accelerated protein degradation and is associated with increased expression of two muscle-specific ubiquitin ligases (E3s): atrogin-1 and muscle ring finger 1 (MuRF1). Glucocorticoids are essential for many types of muscle atrophy, and their effects are opposite to those of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and insulin, which promote growth. In myotubes, dexamethasone (Dex) inhibited growth and enhanced breakdown of long-lived cell proteins, especially myofibrillar proteins (as measured by 3-methylhistidine release), while also increasing atrogin-1 and MuRF1 mRNA. Conversely, IGF-I suppressed protein degradation and prevented the Dex-induced increase in proteolysis. IGF-I rapidly reduced atrogin-1 expression within 1 h by blocking mRNA synthesis without affecting mRNA degradation, whereas IGF-I decreased MuRF1 mRNA slowly. IGF-I and insulin also blocked Dex induction of these E3s and several other atrophy-related genes ("atrogenes"). Changes in overall proteolysis with Dex and IGF-I correlated tightly with changes in atrogin-1 mRNA content, but not with changes in MuRF1 mRNA. IGF-I activates the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt pathway, and inhibition of this pathway [but not the calcineurin-nuclear factor of activated T cell (NFAT) or the MEK-ERK pathway] increased proteolysis and atrogin-1 mRNA expression. Thus an important component of growth stimulation by IGF-I, through the PI3K-Akt pathway, is its ability to rapidly suppress transcription of the atrophy-related E3 atrogin-1 and other atrogenes and degradation of myofibrillar proteins.
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PMID:IGF-I stimulates muscle growth by suppressing protein breakdown and expression of atrophy-related ubiquitin ligases, atrogin-1 and MuRF1. 1510 91

Intracellular Ca(2+) plays an important role in skeletal muscle excitation-contraction coupling and also in excitation-transcription coupling. Activity-dependent alterations in muscle gene expression as a result of increased load (i.e. resistance or endurance training) or decreased activity (i.e. immobilization or injury) are tightly linked to the level of muscle excitation. Differential expression of genes in slow- and fast-twitch fibres is also dependent on fibre activation. Both these biological phenomena are, therefore, tightly linked to the amplitude and duration of the Ca(2+) transient, a signal decoded downstream by Ca(2+)-dependent transcriptional pathways. Evidence is mounting that the calcineurin-nuclear factor of activated T-cells pathway and the Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent kinases (CaMK) II and IV play important roles in regulating oxidative enzyme expression, mitochondrial biogenesis and expression of fibre-type specific myofibrillar proteins. CaMKII is known to decode frequency-dependent information and is activated during hypertrophic growth and endurance adaptations. Thus, it was hypothesized that CaMKII, and possibly CaMKIV, are down regulated during muscle atrophy and levels of expression of CaMKII alpha, -II beta, -II gamma and -IV were assessed in skeletal muscles from young, aged and denervated rats. The results indicate that CaMKII gamma, but not CaMKIIalpha or -beta, is up regulated in aged and denervated soleus muscle and that CaMKIV is absent in skeletal but not cardiac muscle. Whether CaMKII gamma up-regulation is part of the pathology of wasting or a result of some adaptational response to atrophy is not known. Future studies will be important in determining whether insights from the adaptational response of muscle to increased loads will provide pharmacological approaches for increasing muscle strength or endurance to counter muscle wasting.
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PMID:The role of calcium and calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinases in skeletal muscle plasticity and mitochondrial biogenesis. 1529 44

Skeletal muscle is a highly adaptable tissue. It responds to environmental and physiological challenges by changes in size, fibre type and metabolism. All of these responses are underpinned by our genes and it is therefore generally assumed that genetic variation between individuals may account for the differences in musculature and athletic capabilities between people. Research into the genetic influences of our muscle is at an embryonic stage, but some early insight into potential regulators has recently emerged, which is reflected in this review. Broad heritability, which appears to affect muscle size and strength more than metabolism has been assessed in twin and sibling studies. It appears to account for more inter-individual variation in the young as opposed to older people. However, the studies reported to date do demonstrate a large degree of diversity, which is probably predominantly due to different methodological approaches being adopted as well as distinct populations being studied. At a molecular level, there has been enormous progress in identifying regulators of atrophy and hypertrophy though the study of knock-out and transgenic animals and also through the utilisation of cell culture models. Among others, the insulin-like growth factors, calcineurin, desmin, myf5, mrf4, MyoD and myogenin have been identified as positive regulators of muscle size, while TNF-alpha, myostatin and components of the ubiquitin pathway have been recognized as regulators of muscle wasting. However, given the ethical and mechanistic constraints of performing similar studies in humans, difficulties have arisen when attempting to translate the animal and cell culture findings to humans. However, the current search for target "exercise genes" in humans has yielded the first successful results. Variations in the genes encoding for: the angiotensin converting enzyme, alpha-actinin 3, bradykinin, ciliary neurotrophic factor, interleukin-15, insulin-like growth factor II, myostatin and the vitamin D-receptor have all been found to account for some of the inter-subject variability in muscle strength or size. However, the influences of these genetic variations are somewhat weak, and not always reproducible and furthermore they are predominantly based in young healthy people. Hence, a key topic, namely the molecular mechanisms of muscle frailty in the elderly still remains to be elucidated.
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PMID:Adaptive processes in skeletal muscle: molecular regulators and genetic influences. 1667 91

Calcineurin has been proposed to regulate skeletal muscle hypertrophy, while its relevance to the pathogenesis of muscle atrophy is unknown. The present study was aimed to investigate if perturbations of the calcineurin pathway may be involved in causing skeletal muscle atrophy in two different experimental conditions: cancer cachexia (rats bearing the AH-130 hepatoma), and hyperglycemia (rats treated with streptozotocin). Calcineurin expression in the gastrocnemius was comparable between tumor hosts and controls. By contrast, besides unchanged calcineurin mRNA levels, those of protein were lower in diabetic animals than in controls. The DNA-binding activity of the transcription factors NF-AT and MEF-2 was analysed as an indirect measure of calcineurin activity in vivo. The nuclear translocation of both factors was similar in tumor hosts and controls. Consistently with the reduced calcineurin protein levels, NF-AT DNA-binding activity significantly decreased in the gastrocnemius of diabetic rats compared to controls. Finally, muscle wasting correction afforded in the AH-130 hosts by pentoxifylline or interleukin-15 was not paralleled by changes of calcineurin mRNA levels, while treatment of diabetic animals with dehydroepiandrosterone partially prevented calcineurin down-regulation. These results suggest that modulations of calcineurin activity may be involved in the pathogenesis of muscle wasting in diabetes though not in cancer cachexia.
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PMID:Modulations of the calcineurin/NF-AT pathway in skeletal muscle atrophy. 1744 96

Alternative splicing emerges as one of the most important mechanisms to generate transcript diversity. It is regulated by the formation of protein complexes on pre-mRNA. We demonstrate that protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) binds to the splicing factor transformer2-beta1 (tra2-beta1) via a phylogenetically conserved RVDF sequence located on the RNA recognition motif (RRM) of tra2-beta1. PP1 binds directly to tra2-beta1 and dephosphorylates it, which regulates the interaction between tra2-beta1 and other proteins. Eight other proteins, including SF2/ASF and SRp30c, contain an evolutionary conserved PP1 docking motif in the beta-4 strand of their RRMs indicating that binding to PP1 is a new function of some RRMs. Reducing PP1 activity promotes usage of numerous alternative exons, demonstrating a role of PP1 activity in splice site selection. PP1 inhibition promotes inclusion of the survival of motoneuron 2 exon 7 in a mouse model expressing the human gene. This suggests that reducing PP1 activity could be a new therapeutic principle to treat spinal muscular atrophy and other diseases caused by missplicing events. Our data indicate that the binding of PP1 to evolutionary conserved motifs in several RRMs is the link between known signal transduction pathways regulating PP1 activity and pre-mRNA processing.
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PMID:Protein phosphatase 1 binds to the RNA recognition motif of several splicing factors and regulates alternative pre-mRNA processing. 1791

The insulin-like growth factors (IGF-I and IGF-II), working through the type 1 IGF receptor (IGF-1R), are key mediators of skeletal muscle fiber growth and hypertrophy. These processes are largely dependent on stimulation of proliferation and differentiation of muscle precursor cells, termed myoblasts. It has not been rigorously determined whether the IGFs can also mediate skeletal muscle hypertrophy in a myoblast-independent fashion. Similarly, although the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and calcineurin signaling pathways have been implicated in skeletal muscle hypertrophy, these pathways are also involved in skeletal myoblast differentiation. To determine whether the IGFs can stimulate skeletal muscle hypertrophy in a myoblast-independent fashion, we developed and validated a retroviral expression vector that mediated overexpression of the human IGF-1R in rat L6 skeletal myotubes (immature muscle fibers), but not in myoblasts. L6 myotubes transduced with this vector accumulated significantly higher amounts of myofibrillar proteins, in a ligand- and receptor-dependent manner, than controls and demonstrated significantly increased rates of protein synthesis. Stimulation of myotube hypertrophy was independent of myoblast contributions, inasmuch as these cultures did not exhibit increased levels of myoblast proliferation or differentiation. Experiments with PI3K and calcineurin inhibitors indicated that myoblast-independent myotube hypertrophy was mediated by PI3K, but not calcineurin, signaling. This study demonstrates that IGF can mediate skeletal muscle hypertrophy in a myoblast-independent fashion and suggests that muscle-specific overexpression of the IGF-1R or stimulation of its signaling pathways could be used to develop strategies to ameliorate muscle wasting without stimulating proliferative pathways leading to carcinogenesis or other pathological sequelae.
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PMID:Muscle-specific overexpression of the type 1 IGF receptor results in myoblast-independent muscle hypertrophy via PI3K, and not calcineurin, signaling. 1794 Feb 16

The calcium-activated phosphatase calcineurin (Cn) transduces physiological signals through intracellular pathways to influence the expression of specific genes. Here, we characterize a naturally occurring splicing variant of the CnAbeta catalytic subunit (CnAbeta1) in which the autoinhibitory domain that controls enzyme activation is replaced with a unique C-terminal region. The CnAbeta1 enzyme is constitutively active and dephosphorylates its NFAT target in a cyclosporine-resistant manner. CnAbeta1 is highly expressed in proliferating myoblasts and regenerating skeletal muscle fibers. In myoblasts, CnAbeta1 knockdown activates FoxO-regulated genes, reduces proliferation, and induces myoblast differentiation. Conversely, CnAbeta1 overexpression inhibits FoxO and prevents myotube atrophy. Supplemental CnAbeta1 transgene expression in skeletal muscle leads to enhanced regeneration, reduced scar formation, and accelerated resolution of inflammation. This unique mode of action distinguishes the CnAbeta1 isoform as a candidate for interventional strategies in muscle wasting treatment.
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PMID:A naturally occurring calcineurin variant inhibits FoxO activity and enhances skeletal muscle regeneration. 1808 17


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