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

Salsolinol, an endogenous neurotoxin, may be involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. In this study, we sought to determine whether salsolinol-induced cytotoxicity in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells, a cloned cell line which expresses dopaminergic activity, could be prevented by overexpressing a Ca(2+) channel, transient receptor potential (TRPC1) protein. Exposure of SH-SY5Y cells to 500 microM salsolinol for 12 h resulted in a significant decrease in thapsigargin or carbachol-mediated Ca(2+) influx. Consistent with these results, SH-SY5Y cells treated with salsolinol showed approximately 60% reduction in TRPC1 protein levels. Confocal microscopy also showed that SH-SY5Y cells treated with salsolinol had a significant decrease in the plasma membrane staining of the TRPC1 protein. Interestingly, overexpression of TRPC1 increases TRPC1 protein levels and also protected SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells against salsolinol-mediated cytotoxicity as determined by 3,[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The protective effect of TRPC1 was blocked by the addition of TRPC1 blockers lanthanum, or 2APB. Activation of TRPC1 protein by either thapsigargin or carbachol further protected SH-SY5Y cells from salsolinol treatments. Staining of SH-SY5Y cells with an apoptotic marker (YO-PRO-1) showed that TRPC1 protein protects against apoptosis. Furthermore, TRPC1 overexpression also inhibited cytochrome c release and decreased BAX protein levels required for apoptosis. Taken together, these findings suggest that the reduction in cell surface TRPC1 protein expression in response to salsolinol may be a contributory factor in cellular toxicity of the dopaminergic neurons. Furthermore, overexpression of TRPC1 could inhibit apoptotic complex thereby increasing neuronal cell survivability in Parkinson's disease.
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PMID:TRPC1 protects human SH-SY5Y cells against salsolinol-induced cytotoxicity by inhibiting apoptosis. 1676 19

Establishment of a Parkinson's disease (PD) neuron model was attempted with mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. ES cell lines over-expressing mouse nuclear receptor-related 1 (Nurr1), together with human wild-type and alanine 30 --> proline (A30P) and alanine 53 --> threonine (A53T) mutant alpha-synuclein were established and subjected to differentiation into dopaminergic neurons. The ES cell-derived dopaminergic neurons expressing wild-type or mutant alpha-synuclein exhibited the fundamental characteristics consistent with dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. The ES cell-derived PD model neurons exhibited increased susceptibility to oxidative stress, proteasome inhibition, and mitochondrial inhibition. Cell viability of PD model neurons and the control neurons was similar until 28 days after differentiation. Nonetheless, after that time, PD model neurons gradually began to undergo neuronal death over the course of 1 month, showing cytoplasmic aggregate formation and an increase of insoluble alpha-synuclein protein. Such delayed neuronal death was observed in a mutant alpha-synuclein protein level-dependent manner, which was slightly inhibited by a c-jun N-terminal kinase inhibitor and a caspase inhibitor. Such cell death was not observed when the same ES cell lines were differentiated into oligodendrocytes. The ES cell-derived PD model neurons are considered as prospective candidates for a new prototype modelling PD that would allow better investigation of the underlying neurodegenerative pathophysiology.
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PMID:Embryonic stem cell-derived neuron models of Parkinson's disease exhibit delayed neuronal death. 1680 95

DJ-1 was initially identified by us as a novel oncogene and has recently been found to be a causative gene for familial Parkinson's disease (PD) PARK7. DJ-1 plays roles in transcriptional regulation and in oxidative stress function, and its oxidative state at cysteine residues determines activities of DJ-1. In this study, we found that recombinant DJ-1 expressed in and purified from E. coli was specifically cleaved between glycine and proline at amino acid numbers 157 and 158, respectively, by treatment of DJ-1 with H2O2. A substitution mutant of DJ-1 from cysteine to serine at amino acid number 106, a major oxidation site of DJ-1, was found not to be cleaved under an oxidative condition, suggesting oxidation-dependent cleavage of DJ-1. Cleavage of DJ-1 was also observed in human SH-SY5Y cells that had been treated with H2O2. These results suggest that oxidative stress-induced cleavage of DJ-1 regulates functions of DJ-1.
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PMID:Specific cleavage of DJ-1 under an oxidative condition. 1693 23

Alpha-synuclein is a pathological component of Parkinson's disease by participating in Lewy body formation. Imbalance in protein turnover could result in the abnormal protein aggregation responsible for eventual neuronal cell death. This in vitro digestion study showed that both m-calpain and 20S proteasome preferentially hydrolyzed the N-terminal half of alpha-synuclein, which made the hydrophobic NAC and following acidic C-terminal region resistant against the proteolyses. Since the acidic C-terminal region contains the PEST segment-a protein degradation signal enriched with amino acids of proline (P), glutamate (E), serine (S), and threonine (T)-, the PEST segment has not been processed or even required for the proteolyses. Alpha-synuclein would be recognized primarily by m-calpain since the common substrate was processed by m-calpain five times more effectively than 20S proteasome with k(cat)/K(m) of 1.64 x 10(4)M(-1)s(-1) and 0.32 x 10(4) M(-1)s(-1), respectively. The N-terminally truncated protease-resistant C-terminal fragment of alpha-syn61-140 was demonstrated to stimulate the 20S proteasome-mediated breakdown of alpha-synuclein and its mutant forms of Ala53Thr and Ala30Pro. The stimulation for Ala53Thr, however, was noticeably less efficient than those for the other proteins, which might support the previous observation of the prolonged intracellular life span of Ala53Thr by 1.5-fold compared to that of wild-type form. We have hypothesized that the N-terminally truncated C-terminal fragment derived from the abundant alpha-synuclein through intracellular proteolyses could be involved in various physiological or pathological effects which might be related to the formation of abnormal protein aggregation and subsequent neuronal degeneration by influencing the intracellular protein turnover or directly participating in the aggregate formation.
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PMID:Calpain-resistant fragment(s) of alpha-synuclein regulates the synuclein-cleaving activity of 20S proteasome. 1700 55

Oxidative stress and apoptosis are considered common mediators of many neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's disease (PD). Recently, we identified that PKCdelta, a member of the novel PKC isoform family, is proteolytically activated by caspase-3 to induce apoptosis in experimental models of PD [Eur. J. Neurosci. 18 (6):1387-1401, 2003; Antioxid. Redox Signal. 5 (5):609-620, 2003]. Since caspase-3 cleaves PKCdelta between proline and aspartate residues at the cleavage site 324DIPD327 to activate the kinase, we developed an irreversible and competitive peptide inhibitor, Z-Asp(OMe)-Ile-Pro-Asp(OMe)-FMK (z-DIPD-fmk), to mimic the caspase-3 cleavage site of PKCdelta and tested its efficacy against oxidative stress-induced cell death in PD models. Cotreatment of z-DIPD-fmk with the parkinsonian toxins MPP(+) and 6-OHDA dose dependently attenuated cytotoxicity, caspase-3 activation, and DNA fragmentation in a mesencephalic dopaminergic neuronal cell model (N27 cells). However, z-DIPD-fmk treatment did not block MPP(+)-induced increases in caspase-9 enzyme activity. The z-DIPD-fmk peptide was much more potent (IC50 6 microM) than the most widely used and commercially available caspase-3 inhibitor z-DEVD-fmk (IC50 18 microM). Additionally, z-DIPD-fmk more effectively blocked PKCdelta cleavage and proteolytic activation than the cleavage of another caspase-3 substrate, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). Importantly, the peptide inhibitor z-DIPD-fmk completely rescued TH(+) neurons from MPP(+)- and 6-OHDA-induced toxicity in mouse primary mesencephalic cultures. Collectively, these results demonstrate that the PKCdelta cleavage site is a novel target for development of a neuroprotective therapeutic strategy for PD.
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PMID:A novel peptide inhibitor targeted to caspase-3 cleavage site of a proapoptotic kinase protein kinase C delta (PKCdelta) protects against dopaminergic neuronal degeneration in Parkinson's disease models. 1704 26

Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder. The identification of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene mutations as a cause of Parkinson's disease has greatly expanded our knowledge of the genetic and molecular pathogenesis of this disorder. By denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and gene sequencing in patients and controls, we identified a novel frequent heterozygous 2264C-->T substitution, which causes a proline-to-leucine mutation (P755L) in LRRK2 gene. In our sample of 598 patients of Chinese Han ancestry, 12 cases carried the same LRRK2 mutation. Our results indicated that this single mutation was implicated in 2% of sporadic patients. We suggest that testing for this mutation will be important in the management and genetic counseling of patients with Parkinson's disease.
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PMID:A novel P755L mutation in LRRK2 gene associated with Parkinson's disease. 1717 58

To investigate the alpha-synuclein protein and its role in Parkinson's disease, we screened a library of random point mutants both in vitro and in yeast to find variants in an unbiased way that could help us understand the sequence-phenotype relationship. We developed a rapid purification method that allowed us to screen 59 synuclein mutants in vitro and discovered two double-point mutants that fibrillized slowly relative to wild-type, A30P, and A53T alpha-synucleins. The yeast toxicity of all of these proteins was measured, and we found no correlation with fibrillization rate, suggesting that fibrillization is not necessary for synuclein-induced yeast toxicity. We found that beta-synuclein was of intermediate toxicity to yeast, and gamma-synuclein was non-toxic. Co-expression of Parkinson's disease-related genes DJ-1, parkin, Pink1, UCH-L1, or synphilin, with synuclein, did not affect synuclein toxicity. A second screen, of several thousand library clones in yeast, identified 25 non-toxic alpha-synuclein sequence variants. Most of these contained a mutation to either proline or glutamic acid that caused a defect in membrane binding. We hypothesize that yeast toxicity is caused by synuclein binding directly to membranes at levels sufficient to non-specifically disrupt homeostasis.
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PMID:Relationships between the sequence of alpha-synuclein and its membrane affinity, fibrillization propensity, and yeast toxicity. 1722 66

Mutations in the PARK7 gene encoding DJ-1 cause autosomal recessive Parkinson disease. The most deleterious point mutation is the L166P substitution, which resides in a structure motif comprising two alpha-helices (G and H) separated by a kink. Here we subjected the C-terminal helix-kink-helix motif to systematic site-directed mutagenesis, introducing helix-incompatible proline residues as well as conservative substitutions into the helical interface. Furthermore, we generated deletion mutants lacking the H-helix, the kink, and the entire C terminus. When transfected into neural and nonneural cell lines, steady-state levels of G-helix breaking and kink deletion mutants were dramatically lower than wild-type DJ-1. The effects of H-helix breakers were comparably smaller, and the non-helix breaking mutants only slightly destabilized DJ-1. The decreased steady-state levels were due to accelerated protein degradation involving in part the proteasome. G-helix breaking DJ-1 mutations abolished dimer formation. These structural perturbations had functional consequences on the cytoprotective activities of DJ-1. The destabilizing mutations conferred reduced cytoprotection against H(2)O(2) in transiently retransfected DJ-1 knock-out mouse embryonic fibroblasts. The loss of survival promoting activity of the DJ-1 mutants with destabilizing C-terminal mutations correlated with impaired anti-apoptotic signaling. We found that wild-type, but not mutant DJ-1 facilitated the Akt pathway and simultaneously blocked the apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1, with which DJ-1 interacted in a redox-dependent manner. Thus, the G-helix and kink are critical determinants of the C-terminal helix-kink-helix motif, which is absolutely required for stability and the regulation of survival-promoting redox signaling of the Parkinson disease-associated protein DJ-1.
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PMID:Structural determinants of the C-terminal helix-kink-helix motif essential for protein stability and survival promoting activity of DJ-1. 1733 51

The synuclein family of intrinsically unfolded proteins is composed of three highly homologous members, alpha-synuclein (alphaS), beta-synuclein (betaS) and gamma-synuclein (gammaS), which are linked to neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. alphaS has been studied intensively after its identification as the major protein component of amyloid-like deposits in Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. betaS, on the other hand, was found to act as a potent inhibitor of alphaS amyloid formation, and it is proposed as a natural regulator of its neurotoxicity. It is then of particular interest to elucidate the structural and dynamic features of the soluble state of betaS as a first step to understand the molecular basis of its anti-amyloidogenic effect on alphaS. We present here the characterization of natively unstructured betaS by high resolution heteronuclear NMR techniques. A combination of pulse-field gradient, three-dimensional heteronuclear correlation, residual dipolar couplings, paramagnetic relaxation enhancement and backbone relaxation experiments were employed to characterize the ensemble of conformations populated by the protein. The results indicate that betaS adopts extended conformations in its native state, characterized by the lack of the long-range contacts as previously reported for alphaS. Despite the lack of defined secondary structure, we found evidence for transient polyproline II conformations clustered at the C-terminal region. The structuring of the backbone at the C terminus is locally encoded, stabilized by the presence of eight proline residues embedded in a polypeptide stretch rich in hydrophilic and negatively charged amino acids. The structural and functional implications of these findings are analyzed via a thorough comparison with its neurotoxic homolog alphaS.
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PMID:Structural characterization of the intrinsically unfolded protein beta-synuclein, a natural negative regulator of alpha-synuclein aggregation. 1768 39

The proline-directed serine threonine kinase, Cdk5, is an unusual molecule that belongs to the well-known large family of proteins, cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks). While it has significant homology with the mammalian Cdk2 and yeast cdc2, unlike the other Cdks, it has little role to play in cell cycle regulation and is activated by non-cyclin proteins, p35 and p39. It phosphorylates a spectrum of proteins, most of them associated with cell morphology and motility. A majority of known substrates of Cdk5 are cytoskeletal elements, signalling molecules or regulatory proteins. It also appears to be an important player in cell-cell communication. Highly conserved, Cdk5 is most abundant in the nervous system and is of special interest to neuroscientists as it appears to be indispensable for normal neural development and function. In normal cells, transcription and activity of Cdk5 is tightly regulated. Present essentially in post-mitotic neurons, its normal activity is obligatory for migration and differentiation of neurons in developing brain. Deregulation of Cdk5 has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and acute neuronal injury. Regulators of Cdk5 activity are considered as potential therapeutic molecules for degenerative diseases. This review focuses on the role of Cdk5 in neural cells as regulator of cytoskeletal elements, axonal guidance, membrane transport, synaptogenesis and cell survival in normal and pathological conditions.
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PMID:An unusual member of the Cdk family: Cdk5. 1818 83


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