Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0025362 (mental retardation)
 15,878 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The biological function of motile cilia/flagella has long been recognized. The non-motile primary cilium, once regarded as a vestigial organelle, however, has been found recently to play unexpected roles in mammalian physiology and development. Defects in cilia have profound impact on human health. Diseases related to cilia, collectively called ciliopathies include male infertility, primary cilia dyskinesia, renal cyst formation, blindness, polydactyly, obesity, hypertension, and even mental retardation. Our current understanding of cilia and ciliopathies has been fueled by basic research employing various model organisms including Chlamydomonas, a unicellular green alga. This review article provides a general introduction to the cell biology of cilia and an overview of various cilia-related diseases.
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PMID:Cilia and ciliopathies: from Chlamydomonas and beyond. 1848 67

Cilia and flagella are important organelles used for sensing the external cellular environment or for motility. Abnormalities in ciliary structure or function can have devastating pathological consequences ranging from sinusitis and obesity to polycystic kidney disease, retinal degeneration, and mental retardation. Chlamydomonas flagella are excellent models to study the regulation and normal function of cilia. We utilized the 1280 compound Sigma LOPAC annotated library to screen for phenotypes in Chlamydomonas flagellar length, motility, deflagellation, and cellular toxicity. Phenotypes were assessed by quantitation from direct microscopic visualization and custom-designed motility/viability assays. Compounds were clustered based on data across all assays to facilitate the identification of novel pathways regulating flagella in Chlamydomonas. These methods can both aid our understanding of the basic biology of flagellar regulation and provide useful points of therapeutic intervention for cilia-related disorders.
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PMID:Chemical screening methods for flagellar phenotypes in Chlamydomonas. 2352 78

Flagella of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii are nearly identical to cilia of vertebrate cells and provide an excellent model to study ciliogenesis. Cilia and flagella are important organelles used for motility and sensing the extracellular environment. Abnormalities in cilia structure or ciliary dysfunction can have devastating consequences ranging from diabetes and obesity to polycystic kidney disease and mental retardation. Small-molecule inhibitor libraries can be used to screen for flagellum-associated phenotypes in assembly, length, motility, deflagellation, and cellular toxicity. These phenotypes can be assessed from direct microscopic visualization and custom-designed assays. These methods identify fundamental regulators of ciliary biology as well as potential therapeutic interventions for ciliopathies.
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PMID:Chemical Screening for Flagella-Associated Phenotypes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. 3006 33