Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.2.1.23 (beta-galactosidase)
14,648 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Krabbe's disease (globoid cell leukodystrophy) is a progressive cerebral degenerative disease of infancy characterized by severe myelin loss and the presence of globoid bodies in the white matter. Previous studies have suggested that psychosine is the causative agent for the pathogenesis of Krabbe's disease. In the present study, we investigated psychosine-induced injury and cell death of oligodendrocytes in enriched cultures of oligodendrocytes prepared from 3-week-old rat brain. The psychosine concentration sufficient to induce 50% cell death in oligodendrocytes was 30 micrograms/ml in the medium containing serum and 10 micrograms/ml in the serum-free medium. When oligodendrocytes were exposed to psychosine in the presence of phorbol esters, insulin, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), demethylsulfoxide, or serum albumin, the survival of oligodendrocytes was greatly increased. These results indicate that psychosine cytotoxicity against oligodendrocytes is blocked by phorbol esters, insulin, and IGF-I through activation of protein kinase-C, by dimethylsulfoxide through activation of beta-galactosidase, and by albumin through its binding to psychosine.
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PMID:Tissue culture model of Krabbe's disease: psychosine cytotoxicity in rat oligodendrocyte culture. 921 77

Galactocerebrosidase (GALC) is a lysosomal beta-galactosidase responsible for the hydrolysis of the galactosyl moiety from several galactolipids, including galactosylceramide and psychosine. The deficiency of this enzyme results in the autosomal recessive disorder called Krabbe disease. It is also called globoid cell leukodystrophy (GLD), because of the characteristic storage cells found around cerebral blood vessels in the white matter of affected human patients and animal models. Although most patients present with clinical symptoms before 6 months of age, older patients, including adults, have been diagnosed by their severe deficiency of GALC activity. More than 40 mutations have been identified in patients with all clinical types of GLD. While some mutations clearly result in the infantile type if found homozygous or with another severe mutation, it is difficult to predict the phenotype of novel mutations or when mutations are found in the heterozygous state. A high incidence of polymorphic changes on apparent disease-causing alleles also complicates the interpretation of the effects of mutations. The detection of mutations has greatly improved carrier identification among family members and will permit preimplantation diagnosis for some families. The molecular characterization of the naturally occurring mouse, dog, and monkey models will permit their use in trials to evaluate different modes of therapy.
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PMID:Molecular genetics of Krabbe disease (globoid cell leukodystrophy): diagnostic and clinical implications. 933 80

Cytotoxic capacity of psychosine (galactosylsphingosine) was evaluated in comparison with C6-ceramide in cultured fibroblasts and the glia-derived MOCH-1 cells that have characteristics of myelinating cells (1). Psychosine caused cytotoxic cell death and DNA fragmentation at concentrations similar to C6-ceramide and MOCH-1 cells were substantially more sensitive to their cytotoxic effects than fibroblasts. In this system, pretreatment with GM1-ganglioside failed to protect the cells from the deleterious effects of these compounds. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that psychosine is the cytotoxic metabolite that causes apoptotic death of the oligodendrocyte in globoid cell leukodystrophy (Krabbe disease). They further suggest that the protective capacity of GM1-ganglioside is unlikely to be the explanation for the paradoxical improvement of the phenotype of globoid cell leukodystrophy in the mouse simultaneously deficient in two lysosomal beta-galactosidases, galactosylceramidase and GM1-ganglioside beta-galactosidase.
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PMID:Psychosine is as potent an inducer of cell death as C6-ceramide in cultured fibroblasts and in MOCH-1 cells. 1151 26

As previously shown for [(3)H-galactosyl]ceramide, the breakdown of [(3)H-galactosyl]sphingosine was reduced in prosaposin-deficient skin fibroblast homogenates. Galactosylsphingosine hydrolysis was also deficient in cell homogenates from Krabbe's disease (beta-galactocerebrosidase-deficient) patients, but not acid beta-galactosidase-deficient patients. Moreover, hydrolysis of galactosylsphingosine in the prosaposin-deficient cell homogenates could be partially restored by adding pure saposin A or C, thereby identifying these saposins as essential facilitators of galactosylsphingosine hydrolysis. By contrast, saposins B and D had little effect on galactosylsphingosine hydrolysis in the prosaposin-deficient cells. The reduced galactosylsphingosine turnover in prosaposin-deficiency suggests that there could be a pathogenetic cerebral accumulation of galactosylsphingosine in this disorder.
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PMID:Saposins (sap) A and C activate the degradation of galactosylsphingosine. 1170 78

Globoid cell leukodystrophy (GLD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of infants, caused by deficient activity of cerebroside-beta-galactosidase resulting in loss of myelin accompanied by loss of oligodendrocytes. The loss of oligodendrocyte population is accompanied by accumulation of psychosine, which is considered as the molecule responsible for the observed pathophysiology of GLD. We were able to detect apoptotic cells by terminal dUTP nick-end labeling assay and nuclear localization of p53 in postmortem brain tissue of Krabbe's disease patients, which were not detected in the control brain. To study the role of psychosine in cell death, we investigated the effect of psychosine on C6 glial cell survival by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Similar to ceramide (43.8% loss) the galactopsychosine and glucopsychosine treatment killed up to 46.3 and 48.75% of cells, respectively. On the other hand, sphingosine had no effect. DNA laddering assay confirmed these results. Moreover, psychosine-induced detection of annexin-V positive cells supports a role for psychosine in C6 glial cell death via the apoptotic pathway. These results indicate that psychosine may play a role in apoptotic cell loss observed in GLD brain.
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PMID:Apoptotic positive cells in Krabbe brain and induction of apoptosis in rat C6 glial cells by psychosine. 1223 42

Patients with Gaucher disease have been classified as type 1 nonneuronopathic, type 2 acute neuronopathic, and type 3 chronic neuronopathic phenotypes. Increased quantities of glucocerebroside and glucosylsphingosine (glucopsychosine) are present in the brain of type 2 and type 3 Gaucher patients. Galactosylsphingosine has previously been shown to be neurotoxic in globoid cell leukodystrophy (Krabbe disease). To determine whether glucosylsphingosine is also neurotoxic, we examined its effect on cultured cholinergic neuron-like LA-N-2 cells. When these cells were exposed to 1, 5, or 10 microM glucosylsphingosine for a period of 18 h, they became shriveled, neurite outgrowth was suppressed, and the activities of the lysosomal enzymes glucocerebrosidase, sphingomyelinase, and beta-galactosidase were reduced in a dose-dependent manner. Acetylcholine in cells exposed to glucosylsphingosine also declined. Cells switched to glucosylsphingosine-free medium partially recovered. The data suggest that accumulation of glucosylsphingosine contributes to neuronal dysfunction and destruction in patients with neuronopathic Gaucher disease.
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PMID:Toxicity of glucosylsphingosine (glucopsychosine) to cultured neuronal cells: a model system for assessing neuronal damage in Gaucher disease type 2 and 3. 1467 74

In some parts of the CNS, depletion of a particular class of neuron might induce changes in the microenvironment that influence the differentiation of newly grafted neural precursor cells. This hypothesis was tested in the retina by inducing apoptotic retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death in neonatal and adult female mice and examining whether intravitreally grafted male neural precursor cells (C17.2), a neural stem cell (NSC)-like clonal line, become incorporated into these selectively depleted retinae. In neonates, rapid RGC death was induced by removal of the contralateral superior colliculus (SC), in adults, delayed RGC death was induced by unilateral optic nerve (ON) transection. Cells were injected intravitreally 6-48 h after SC ablation (neonates) or 0-7 days after ON injury (adults). Cells were also injected into non-RGC depleted neonatal and adult retinae. At 4 or 8 weeks, transplanted cells were identified using a Y-chromosome marker and in situ hybridisation or by their expression of the lacZ reporter gene product Escherichia coli beta-galactosidase (beta-gal). No C17.2 cells were identified in axotomised adult-injected eyes undergoing delayed RGC apoptosis (n = 16). Donor cells were however stably integrated within the retina in 29% (15/55) of mice that received C17.2 cell injections 24 h after neonatal SC ablation; 6-31% of surviving cells were found in the RGC layer (GCL). These NSC-like cells were also present in intact retinae, but on average, there were fewer cells in GCL. In SC-ablated mice, most grafted cells did not express retinal-specific markers, although occasional donor cells in the GCL were immunopositive for beta-III tubulin, a protein highly expressed by, but not specific to, developing RGCs. Targeted rapid RGC depletion thus increased cell incorporation into the GCL, but grafted C17.2 cells did not appear to differentiate into an RGC phenotype.
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PMID:Fate of multipotent neural precursor cells transplanted into mouse retina selectively depleted of retinal ganglion cells. 1498 Aug 6

During the last 5 years 2057 children under the age of 5 with various neurologic symptoms with the suspected diagnosis of lysosomal storage diseases were referred to our hospital from different universities and state hospitals. We were able to separate sphingolipidoses by lysosomal enzyme screening. A total of 300 patients (15%) with sphingolipidoses were diagnosed; there were deficiencies of arylsulfatase A [metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD)] in 93 (31%), hexosaminidase [Sandhoff disease (SHD)] in 62 (20.7%), hexosaminidase A [Tay-Sachs disease (TSD)] in 15 (5%), beta-galactosidase (GM1 gangliosidosis) in 35 (11.7%), alpha-galactosidase (Fabry disease) in one (0.3%) cerebroside beta-galactosidase (Krabbe disease) in 65 (21.7%) and glucosylceramidase (Gaucher disease) in 29 (9.6%). SHD (20.7%), MLD (31%) and Krabbe disease (21.7%) were common. Prenatal enzymatic diagnosis was made in 70 at risk pregnancies, 64 for TSD and SHD, three for MLD and three for GM1 gangliosidosis by using chorionic villus biopsy in 54, cord blood samples in 12 and cultured amniotic fluid cells in four. Seventeen fetuses were found to be affected. We have calculated the relative frequency and minimum incidence of sphingolipidoses in Turkey. The combined incidence of sphingolipidoses is 4.615 per 100,000 live births. The calculated incidences are 1.43, 0.95, 1, 0.23, 0.54, 0.45, 0.015 per 100,000 live births for MLD, SHD, Krabbe, Gaucher, TSD, GM1 gangliosidosis and Fabry diseases, respectively. The real incidence, which covers all subtypes of this group of diseases, should be greater than this number. The results suggested that, as a group, sphingolipidoses are relatively common and represent an important health problem in Turkey and some rare autosomal recessive diseases of Turkey are due to 'founder effect' created by consanguineous marriages.
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PMID:Sphingolipidoses in Turkey. 1527 96

Saposin A (Sap-A) is one of five known sphingolipid activator proteins required for the lysosomal degradation of sphingolipids and for the loading of lipid antigens onto antigen-presenting molecules of the CD1 type. Sap-A assists in the degradation of galactosylceramide by galactosylceramide-beta-galactosidase in vivo, which takes place at the surface of intraendosomal/intralysosomal vesicles. Sap-A is believed to mediate the interaction between the enzyme and its membrane-bound substrate. Its dysfunction causes a variant form of Krabbe disease. In the present study we prepared glycosylated Sap-A free of other Saps, taking advantage of the Pichia pastoris expression system. Using liposomes and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, we tested the binding and lipid mobilization capacity of Sap-A under different conditions. Along the endocytic pathway, the pH value decreases, and the lipid composition of intraendosomal and intralysosomal membranes changes drastically. In the inner membranes the cholesterol concentration decreases, and that of the anionic phospholipid bis(monoacylglycero)phosphate increases. Here, we show that Sap-A is able to bind to liposomes and to mobilize lipids out of them at acidic pH values below pH 4.7. Low cholesterol levels and increasing concentrations of bis(monoacylglycero)phosphate favor lipid extraction significantly. Galactosylceramide as a bilayer component is not essential for lipid mobilization by Sap-A, which requires intact disulfide bridges for activity. We also show for the first time that glycosylation of Sap-A is essential for its lipid extraction activity. Variant Sap-A proteins, which cause storage of galactosylceramide in humans (Krabbe disease, Spiegel, R., Bach, G., Sury, V., Mengistu, G., Meidan, B., Shalev, S., Shneor, Y., Mandel, H., and Zeigler, M. (2005) Mol. Genet. Metab. 84, 160-166) and in mutant mice (Matsuda, J., Vanier, M. T., Saito, Y., Tohyama, J., and Suzuki, K. (2001) Hum. Mol. Genet. 10, 1191-1199) are deficient in lipid extraction capacity.
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PMID:Saposin A mobilizes lipids from low cholesterol and high bis(monoacylglycerol)phosphate-containing membranes: patient variant Saposin A lacks lipid extraction capacity. 1690 46

Rapid and accurate genotype determination is ideal for the maintenance of breeding colonies of laboratory animal models of genetic disease. The rhesus macaque and murine (twitcher) models of globoid cell leukodystrophy have a dinucleotide deletion or single nucleotide substitution, respectively, which abolish ceramide beta-galactosidase activity and are authentic models of Krabbe disease. We report a molecular beacon PCR assay for each species which allows unambiguous determination of the genotype in under 4h. The assay works reliably with DNA extracted from hair roots using Chelex-100 in a 20 min, 100 degrees C incubation. We demonstrate that genotyping from hair roots is a preferred alternative to collecting blood or tissue for DNA extraction because it reduces animal distress, uses an inexpensive reagent, and is simpler and faster. Following amplification on a standard thermocycler with a 96-well plate format, these molecular beacon assays can be read on a standard laboratory fluorescent plate reader, eliminating the need to use a real-time thermocycler or to open the plate for subsequent restriction enzyme digestion and gel electrophoresis. The multiplexed ratio of fluorescence from wild-type- and mutant-specific beacons reporting at 560 nm and 535 nm wavelengths is distinct for each genotype.
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PMID:Molecular beacon genotyping for globoid cell leukodystrophy from hair roots in the twitcher mouse and rhesus macaque. 1741 25


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