Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0002736 (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)
 19,048 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a motor neuron disease of unknown origin. Autoimmunity against voltage-gated calcium channels is one mechanism hypothesized to be the cause of the disease. In support of this hypothesis, it was previously reported that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis IgG specifically blocked the binding of 8B7 monoclonal antibody to the alpha1 subunit of voltage-gated calcium channels, suggesting overlapping epitopes of the two antibodies. It is, however, possible that the 8B7 epitope was destroyed by proteases. Data presented here show that the blocking of 8B7 binding to the alpha1 subunit by diethylaminoethyl cellulose (DEAE)-purified amyotrophic lateral sclerosis IgG was not observed with Fab fragments of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis IgG. The blocking was prevented by serine protease inhibitors. Moreover, it was reproduced by plasminogen and urokinase. These observations suggest that raised proteolytic activity in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis IgG preparations may be responsible for the blockade of 8B7 monoclonal antibody demonstrated previously. They also indicate the need to be particularly cautious when interpreting the results of incubation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis sera or IgG preparations. Furthermore, they suggest that proteases may be partly responsible for some of the effects previously described for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis IgG. However, the proteolytic activity needs to be better defined and its possible role in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis investigated.
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PMID:Proteolytic activity in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis IgG preparations. 895 7

There is substantial evidence, implicating extracellular matrix (ECM) regulating enzymes in the pathogenesis of motor neuron degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The most important ECM-degrading proteases are serine proteases (plasminogen activators, PA) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Since the role of MMPs in ALS has been addressed recently, we investigated the expression of the serine protease urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and its receptor in ALS. Employing rtPCR, zymography and immunohistochemistry we analyzed the expression of uPA and its receptor uPAR in spinal cord tissue of ALS cases and in the G93A SOD1 transgenic mouse. In the ventral horn of the spinal cord of ALS cases we found increased uPAR staining of motor neurons. In G93A mice, the expression profile of uPA and uPAR mRNA was significantly increased starting at the age of 90 days as compared to non-transgenic littermates. The uPA-dependent plasminogen activation in G93A mice at endstage increased markedly compared with controls and immunostaining of the spinal cord from G93A mice revealed increased uPAR immunostaining in neurons. To determine the functional role of uPA, we investigated the effect of intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of the uPA inhibitor WX-340 (10 mg/kg), starting at the age of 30 days (n=18). Treatment with WX-340 prolonged (p<0.05) survival of the animals (135+/-2 vs. 126+/-3) as well as improving rotarod performance. Our experiments demonstrate that uPA and its receptor are expressed in ALS patients and in an animal model of ALS. Early inhibition with a synthetic uPA inhibitor prolonged the life of the transgenic animals. These findings indicate that the urokinase-type plasminogen activator system may play a role in the complex pathogenesis of ALS.
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PMID:A role for the urokinase-type plasminogen activator system in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. 1771 58