Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:6.5.1.2 (DNA ligase)
 2,749 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Oxidative stress is involved in the neuropathology of several neurodegenerative diseases and stroke, all of which are related to excitotoxicity. Age-dependent vulnerability is characteristic of these conditions. It is not clear whether apoptosis-related neuronal death is involved in age-dependent vulnerability to excitotoxicity. We evaluated whether apoptosis-related neuronal death after treatment with 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NP) is age-dependent in the mouse striatum. We have demonstrated that oxidative stress occurs early after 3-NP treatment and even more so in aged mice. DNA fragmentation with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated uridine 5'-triphosphate-biotin nick end labeling staining and gel electrophoresis occurred in an age-dependent fashion. Expression of the DNA repair enzyme, apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease, was more attenuated in old mice. Therefore, these results suggest that oxidative stress induces age-dependent neuronal apoptosis in the mouse striatum after 3-NP treatment, which in turn produces an age-dependent vulnerability to 3-NP.
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PMID:Oxidative stress and neuronal DNA fragmentation mediate age-dependent vulnerability to the mitochondrial toxin, 3-nitropropionic acid, in the mouse striatum. 1116 45

Complications of diabetes rather than the primary disease itself pose the most challenging aspects of diabetic patient management. Diabetic vascular dysfunction represents a problem of great clinical importance underlying the development of many of the complications including retinopathy, neuropathy and the increased risk of stroke, hypertension and myocardial infarction. Hyperglycaemia stimulates many cellular pathways, which result in oxidative stress, including increased production of advanced glycosylated end products, protein kinase C activation, and polyol pathway flux. Endothelial cells produce nitric oxide constitutively to regulate normal vascular tone; the combination of this nitric oxide with the hyperglycaemia-induced superoxide formation results in the production of reactive nitrogen species such as peroxynitrite. This nitrosative stress results in many damaging cellular effects, but it is these effects on DNA, which are the most damaging to the cell function; nitrosative stress induces DNA single stand breaks and leads to over-activation of the DNA repair enzyme poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). PARP activation contributes to endothelial cell dysfunction and appears to be the central mediator in all the mechanisms by which hyperglycaemia-induces diabetic vascular dysfunction. This review focuses on the mechanism by which hyperglycaemia induces nitrosative stress and the role PARP activation plays in diabetic vascular dysfunction.
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PMID:Role of nitrosative stress and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase activation in diabetic vascular dysfunction. 1602 21

Multiple cell death pathways are activated in cerebral ischaemia. Much of the initial injury, especially in the core of the infarct where cerebral blood flow is severely reduced, is necrotic and secondary to severe energy failure. However, there is considerable evidence that delayed cell death continues for several days, primarily in the penumbral region. As reperfusion therapies grow in number and effectiveness, restoration of blood flow early after injury may lead to a shift towards apoptosis. It is important to elucidate what are the key mediators of apoptotic cell death after stroke, as inhibition of apoptosis may have therapeutic implications. There are two well described pathways that lead to apoptotic cell death; the caspase pathway and the more recently described caspase-independent pathway triggered by poly-ADP-ribose polymers (PARP) activation. Caspase-induced cell death is initiated by release of mitochondrial cytochrome c, formation of the cytosolic apoptosome, and activation of endonucleases leading to a multitude of small randomly cleaved DNA fragments. In contrast caspase-independent cell death is secondary to activation of apoptosis inducing factor (AIF). Mitochondrial AIF translocates to the nucleus, where it induces peripheral chromatin condensation, as well as characteristic high-molecular-weight (50 kbp) DNA fragmentation. Although caspase-independent cell death has been recognized for some time and is known to contribute to ischaemic injury, the upstream triggering events leading to activation of this pathway remain unclear. The two major theories are that ischaemia leads to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) depletion and subsequent energy failure, or alternatively that cell death is directly triggered by a pro-apoptotic factor produced by activation of the DNA repair enzyme PARP. PARP activation is robust in the ischaemic brain producing variable lengths of poly-ADP-ribose (PAR) polymers as byproducts of PARP activation. PAR polymers may be directly toxic by triggering mitochondrial AIF release independently of NAD+ depletion. Recently, sex differences have been discovered that illustrate the importance of understanding these molecular pathways, especially as new therapeutics targeting apoptotic cell death are developed. Cell death in females proceeds primarily via caspase activation whereas caspase-independent mechanisms triggered by the activation of PARP predominate in the male brain. This review summarizes the current literature in an attempt to clarify the roles of NAD+ and PAR polymers in caspase-independent cell death, and discuss sex specific cell death to provide an example of the possible importance of these downstream mediators.
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PMID:NAD+ depletion or PAR polymer formation: which plays the role of executioner in ischaemic cell death? 2109 37

Pathological conditions states such as stroke, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia are associated with increased levels of free radicals that alter normal function of the vascular endothelium and perturb vascular homeostasis. The redox couples reduced glutathione (GSH)/oxidized glutathione (GSSG), NADH/NAD+, and NADPH/NADP+ play major functions in the intracellular redox balance. Any decrease in tissue or systemic GSH levels under the aforementioned pathologies would enhance oxidative damage to the vascular endothelium. Beside their role as coenzyme that participate in cellular metabolism, pyridine nucleotides serve also as substrate for enzymes involved in DNA repair and longevity. There is scant data on NAD+/NADH kinetics and distribution during human cells proliferation. Here, we determined the influence of cellular GSH status on the early dynamics of nuclear-to-cytosol (N-to-C) NAD+ and nuclear NADH kinetics (6 h interval) over 72 h of endothelial cell proliferation. The IHEC cell line was used as a surrogate for human brain micro vascular endothelial cells. Inhibition of GSH synthesis by buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) and sustained low cellular GSH significantly increased nuclear NADH levels (p<0.01), which correlated with lower nuclear GSH and prolonged cell cycle S-phase. When BSO was removed the pattern of nuclear NAD+ resembled that of control group, but nuclear NADH concentrations remained elevated, as in GSH deficient cells (p<0.01). The coincidence of high nuclear NADH and lower nuclear NAD+ with S-phase prolongation are suggestive of CtBP and NAD+-dependent DNA repair enzyme activation under conditions of decreased cellular GSH. These results provide important insights into GSH control of vascular endothelial growth and restitution, key processes in the restoration of the endothelium adjacent to the post-injury lesion site.
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PMID:Influence of GSH synthesis inhibition on temporal distribution of NAD+/NADH during vascular endothelial cells proliferation. 2571 32