Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0026850 (muscular dystrophy)
 5,870 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Although the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) was first discovered almost 30 years ago [1], it did not attract significant research attention until the 1990's when several studies implicated mPTP in apoptosis [2]. Today, the dogma suggests that opening of mPTP is detrimental to the cell and mPTP activation is widely thought to contribute to disease in cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, muscular dystrophy, and cardiac reperfusion injury [3]. Multiple factors including Ca(2+), OH(-), P(i), cyclophilin D, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) trigger mPTP opening [4]. However, whether mPTP activation feeds back to alter mitochondrial ROS generation remains unclear. We recently demonstrated that under normal conditions, individual mitochondria undergo spontaneous transient bursts of quantal superoxide generation, termed "superoxide flashes" [5]. Superoxide flashes are observed in all cell types investigated to date and are triggered by a surprising functional coupling between mPTP activation and electron transport chain (ETC) dependent superoxide production. Additionally, reoxgenation following anoxia leads to uncontrolled superoxide flash genesis in cardiomyocytes. This positive feedback mechanism for mPTP/ETC-dependent ROS generation may drive localized redox signaling in individual mitochondria under physiological conditions, and when left unchecked, contribute to global cellular oxidative stress under pathological conditions in cardiac disease. The mPTP activity-dependent cell life and death determination imposes new challenges and opportunities in the pursuit of therapeutic agents for treating diseases in which oxidative stress has been implicated such as cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury.
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PMID:Superoxide flashes: illuminating new insights into cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury. 1964 73

The recognition that oxidative stress is a major component of several chronic diseases has engendered numerous trials of antioxidant therapies with minimal or no direct benefits. Nanomolar quantities of nitric oxide released into the circulation by pharmacologic stimulation of eNOS have antioxidant properties but physiologic stimulation as through increased pulsatile shear stress of the endothelium has not been assessed. The present study utilized a non-invasive technology, periodic acceleration (pGz) that increases pulsatile shear stress such that upregulation of cardiac eNOS occurs, We assessed its efficacy in normal mice and mouse models with high levels of oxidative stress, e.g. Diabetes type 1 and mdx (Duchene Muscular Dystrophy). pGz increased protein expression and upregulated eNOS in hearts. Application of pGz was associated with significantly increased expression of endogenous antioxidants (Glutathioneperoxidase-1(GPX-1), Catalase (CAT), Superoxide, Superoxide Dismutase 1(SOD1). This led to an increase of total cardiac antioxidant capacity along with an increase in the antioxidant response element transcription factor Nrf2 translocation to the nucleus. pGz decreased reactive oxygen species in both mice models of oxidative stress. Thus, pGz is a novel non-pharmacologic method to harness endogenous antioxidant capacity.
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PMID:Antioxidant Properties of Whole Body Periodic Acceleration (pGz). 2613 77