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)

Protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation mediated by protein kinases and protein phosphatases, respectively, represent essential steps in a variety of vital neuronal processes that could affect susceptibility to ischemic stroke. In this study, the role of the neuron-specific gamma isoform of protein kinase C (gammaPKC) in reversible focal ischemia was examined using mutant mice in which the gene for gammaPKC was knocked-out (gammaPKC-KO). A period of 150 minutes of unilateral middle cerebral artery and common carotid artery (MCA/CCA) occlusion followed by 21.5 hours of reperfusion resulted in significantly larger (P < 0.005) infarct volumes (n = 10; 31.1+/-4.2 mm3) in gammaPKC-KO than in wild-type (WT) animals (n = 12; 22.6+/-7.4 mm3). To control for possible differences related to genetic background, the authors analyzed Balb/cJ, C57BL/6J, and 129SVJ WT in the MCA/CCA model of focal ischemia. No significant differences in stroke volume were detected between these WT strains. Impaired substrate phosphorylation as a consequence of gammaPKC-KO might be corrected by inhibition of protein dephosphorylation. To test this possibility, gammaPKC-KO mice were treated with the protein phosphatase 2B (calcineurin) inhibitor, FK-506, before ischemia. FK-506 reduced (P < 0.008) the infarct volume in gammaPKC-KO mice (n = 7; 24.6+/-4.6 mm3), but at this dose in this model, had no effect on the infarct volume in WT mice (n = 7; 20.5+/-10.7 mm3). These results indicate that gammaPKC plays some neuroprotective role in reversible focal ischemia.
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PMID:Interplay between the gamma isoform of PKC and calcineurin in regulation of vulnerability to focal cerebral ischemia. 1069 72

A pivotal role of c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) on neuronal apoptosis has been demonstrated in a rodent stroke model. MAP kinase phosphatase 1 (MKP-1) is an archetypal member of the dual-specificity protein phosphatase (DUSP) family, which inactivates mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) including JNK through dephosphorylation. MKP-1, one of immediate early genes in stress conditions, was induced at transcriptional level in hypoxia/re-oxygenation (H/R) in neuroblastoma N1E115 cells, however the activation of JNK was not suppressed in the acute phase of re-oxygenation. Small interference RNA-mediated knock-down of MKP-1 enhanced phospho-JNK and neuronal death that is rescued by JNK inhibitor in H/R. Conversely, conditional over-expression of MKP-1 suppressed phospho-JNK, the expression of proapoptotic genes, and neuronal death in H/R. Further the immunoreactivity of MKP-1 was detected in the neurons and partially co-localized with that of phospho-JNK in the surrounding zone of ischemia in rat MCA-O (middle cerebral artery occlusion) reperfusion model. These findings indicate that over-expression of MKP-1 could suppress neuronal death possibly through regulating JNK signaling in vitro and be a prominent neuroprotective target for the treatment of acute cerebral infarction.
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PMID:Over-expression of map kinase phosphatase-1 (MKP-1) suppresses neuronal death through regulating JNK signaling in hypoxia/re-oxygenation. 2219 1