Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0030567 (Parkinson's disease)
 63,064 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Several neurodegenerative disorders, such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease, are associated with inflammatory damage. The complex process of neuroinflammation involves various components of the immune system and the central nervous system. Particularly, brain astrocytes and microglial cells generate several inflammatory mediators like cytokines, leukotrienes, superoxide radicals, eicasonoids, and the components of the complement cascade. Complement plays an important role in the etiology of most of the neuroinflammatory disorders. To prevent long-term dysfunction inflammation in the central nervous system must be modulated with neuroprotective agents such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, steroids, phenolic thiazoles, nitrones, catechins, nitric oxide synthetase inhibitors, flavonoids, and phosphodiesterase inhibitors. Few drugs are found to be effective and their therapeutic benefit is hampered by side effects. Most of the neuroprotective agents are free radical scavengers and many inhibit only one or two aspects of inflammation. The complement inhibitory activity of most of these agents is either unknown or not established. Thus, there is doubt regarding their therapeutic value in most of the inflammatory disorders in which complement plays a major role. In this context the role of a multifunctional protein, vaccinia virus complement control protein (VCP), is quite significant as it may play a pivotal role in the treatment of several neuroinflammatory disorders. VCP is known to inhibit both complement pathways involved in inflammation. It is also known to inhibit cytokines and chemokines in inflammation. Our recent studies on rats demonstrate that VCP administration inhibits macrophage infiltration, reduces spinal cord destruction, and improves motor skills associated with spinal cord injury, establishing VCP as a strong candidate for neuroprotection. Thus, complement inhibitors such as VCP can serve as neuroprotective agents in inflammation associated with several neurodegenerative disorders.
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PMID:Neuroprotection from complement-mediated inflammatory damage. 1568 6

The upregulated complement system plays a damaging role in disorders of the central nervous system (CNS). The classical and alternate pathways are two major pathways activated in neuroinflammatory disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, HIV-associated dementia, Parkinson's disease, and mad cow disease. Failure of currently available anti-inflammatory agents, especially cyclooxygenase inhibitors, in offering significant neuroprotection in large epidemiologic clinical trials of CNS disorders suggests an urgent need for the development of new neuroprotective agents. The positive preclinical outcomes in treating CNS disorders by complement regulatory molecules, such as vaccinia virus complement control protein, suggest the possibility of using complement-inhibitory molecules as neuroprotective agents. Several active ingredients of herbal origin are found to have complement-inhibitory activity. These herbal ingredients along with other anti-inflammatory roles might be useful in treating neuroinflammation associated with CNS disorders. Active ingredients of herbal origin with complement inhibitory ingredients are summarized and classified according to their chemical nature and specificity towards the major pathways activating the complement system. The structure activity relationship of some specific examples is also discussed in this report. This information might be helpful in formulating a natural panacea against complement-mediated neuroinflammation.
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PMID:Herbal complement inhibitors in the treatment of neuroinflammation: future strategy for neuroprotection. 1638 6

Although extracellular signal-related kinase 1/2 (ERK 1/2) activity is generally associated with cell survival, prolonged ERK activation induced by oxidative stress also mediates neuronal cell death. Here we report that oxidative stress-induced cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) activation stimulates neuroprotective signaling via phosphorylation of vaccinia-related kinase 3 (VRK3) at Ser 108. The binding of vaccinia H1-related (VHR) phosphatase to phosphorylated VRK3 increased its affinity for phospho-ERK and subsequently downregulated ERK activation. Overexpression of VRK3 protected human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced apoptosis. However the CDK5 was unable to phosphorylate mutant VRK3, and thus the mutant forms of VRK3 could not attenuate apoptotic process. Suppression of CDK5 activity results in increase of ERK activation and elevation of proapoptotic protein Bak expression in mouse cortical neurons. Results from VRK3-deficient neurons were further confirmed the role of VRK3 phosphorylation in H2O2-evoked ERK regulation. Importantly, we showed an association between phospho-VRK3 levels and the progression of human Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Together our work reveals endogenous protective mechanism against oxidative stress-induced neuronal cell death and suggest VRK3 as a potential therapeutic target in neurodegenerative diseases.
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PMID:Stress-induced nuclear translocation of CDK5 suppresses neuronal death by downregulating ERK activation via VRK3 phosphorylation. 2734 74