Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0038454 (stroke)
 147,016 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Chaperones, especially the stress inducible Hsp70, have been studied for their potential to protect the brain from ischemic injury. While they protect from both global and focal ischemia in vivo and cell culture models of ischemia/reperfusion injury in vitro, the mechanism of protection is not well understood. Protein aggregation is part of the etiology of chronic neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's and Alzheimer's, and recent data demonstrate protein aggregates in animal models of stroke. We now demonstrate that overexpression of Hsp70 in hippocampal CA1 neurons reduces evidence of protein aggregation under conditions where neuronal survival is increased. We have also demonstrated protection by the cochaperone Hdj-2 in vitro and demonstrated that this is associated with reduced protein aggregation identified by ubiquitin immunostaining. Hdj-2 can prevent protein aggregate formation by itself, but can only facilitate protein folding in conjunction with Hsp70. Pharmacological induction of Hsp70 was found to reduce both apoptotic and necrotic astrocyte death induced by glucose deprivation or oxygen glucose deprivation. Protection from ischemia and ischemia-like injury by chaperones thus involves at least anti-apoptotic, anti-necrotic and anti-protein aggregation mechanisms.
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PMID:Chaperones, protein aggregation, and brain protection from hypoxic/ischemic injury. 1529 42

The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway has a central role in selective degradation of intracellular proteins. Among the key proteins that are degraded by the system are those involved in the control of inflammation, cell cycle regulation, and gene expression. With so many important cellular pathways affected, derangements in the ubiquitin system have been shown to result in a variety of human diseases. Consequently, proteasome inhibition has a potential as a form of treatment for many human diseases such as cancer and inflammatory conditions. Two proteasome inhibitors, PS-341 and PS-519 are currently under clinical evaluation. PS-341 is currently being evaluated in phase III clinical trial for multiple myeloma, and PS-519 is now on a phase II trial for acute ischemic stroke. In addition, inhibition of the proteasome has been shown to be effective in several animal models for a variety of human diseases such as different malignancies, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and arterial restenosis. Future studies will be required to establish whether the promising animal studies could be successfully implicated in human disease states.
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PMID:[The ubiquitin system for intracellular protein degradation--involvement in human pathologies and therapeutic implications]. 1552 15

The fast-track approval of a proteasome inhibitor, PS-341, to treat multiple myeloma spurred a wave of interest in both the proteasome itself and small-molecule compounds blocking its activities. Besides being candidates for drugs against cancer, autoimmune diseases, inflammation, or stroke, specific proteasome inhibitors are indispensable tools for biochemical and cell biology investigations of the proteasome and proteasome-ubiquitin system. Numerous synthetic peptide derivatives, such as boronates, epoxides, aldehydes, vinyl sulfones, cyclic peptides, and lactones, block the N-terminal threonine-type active centers of the enzyme, halting the cleavage of proteasomal protein substrates both in vitro and in vivo. Because some of the proteasomal inhibitors exhibit a high specificity toward only one particular type of an active center of the proteasome, they constitute valuable probes for testing the mechanism of proteolysis catalyzed by the enzyme. In this chapter we discuss the most common applications of available proteasome inhibitors. In addition to the best-known competitive inhibitors, we also describe the benefits from the use of allosteric inhibitors, which induce distinct but less understood in vitro and in vivo effects on the proteasomal machinery. Finally, we present the application of the basic biochemical procedures to decipher the mechanism of interactions of a novel compound with the proteasome.
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PMID:Small-molecule inhibitors of proteasome activity. 1591 22

Proteasomes are large, multi-catalytic protease complexes that are found in the cytosol and in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells with a central role in cellular protein turnover. The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is the predominant non-lysosomal protein degradation pathway that ensures the viability, proliferation and signaling of eukaryotic organisms. Overwhelming data exist implicating a critical role for the UPS in cerebral ischemic injury. Ischemic and hypoxic trauma, and their associated oxidative, nitrosylative and energetic stress, underlie neurodegeneration following stroke, and evoke a discreet set of transcriptional events which have a complex and interdependent relationship with proteasomal function. Rapid elimination of denatured, misfolded and damaged proteins by the proteasome becomes a critical determinant of cell fate. Proof-of-principle has been obtained from animal models of cerebral ischemia, in which proteasome inhibitors reduce neuronal and astrocytic degeneration, cortical infarct volume, infarct neutrophil infiltration. and nuclear factor kappaB immunoreactivity. This neuroprotective efficacy has also been observed when proteasome inhibitors have been used 6 h after ischemic insult. Strategies aimed at effecting long-lasting changes in proteasomal function are not recommended, given the growing body of evidence implicating long-term proteasomal dysfunction in chronic neurodegenerative disease. These effects are likely due to the fact that the UPS is also essential for cellular growth, metabolism and repair, and untoward effects of proteasomal inhibition indicate that the development of short-lived proteasome inhibitors, or compounds which can spatially and temporally regulate the UPS, is a desirable clinical target. Studies in animal models indicate that the use of specific proteasome inhibitors may be beneficial in treating a host of acute neurological disorders, including ischemic stroke.
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PMID:The ubiquitin-proteasome system as a drug target in cerebrovascular disease: therapeutic potential of proteasome inhibitors. 1604 64

Protein aggregation and misfolding are central mechanisms of both acute and chronic neurodegeneration. Overexpression of chaperone Hsp70 protects from stroke in animal and cell culture models. Although it is accepted that chaperones protect cells, the mechanism of protection by chaperones in ischemic injury is poorly understood. In particular, the relative importance of preventing protein aggregation compared to facilitating correct protein folding during ischemia and recovery is not known. To test the importance of protein folding and minimize interaction with co-chaperones we studied the bacterial chaperonin GroEL (HSPD1) and a folding-deficient mutant D87K. Both molecules protected cells from ischemia-like injury, and reduced infarct volume and improved neurological outcome after middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats. Protection was associated with reduced protein aggregation, assessed by ubiquitin immunohistochemistry. Marked neuroprotection by the folding-deficient chaperonin demonstrates that inhibition of aggregation is sufficient to protect the brain from ischemia. This suggests that strategies to maintain protein solubility and inhibit aggregation in the face of acute insults such as stroke may be a useful protective strategy.
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PMID:Chaperonin GroEL and its mutant D87K protect from ischemia in vivo and in vitro. 1625 78

The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway is the central mediator of regulated proteolysis, instrumental for switching on and off a variety of signaling cascades. Deregulation of proteasomal activity or improper substrate recognition and processing by the ubiquitin-proteasome machinery may lead to cancer, stroke, chronic inflammation, and neurodegenerative diseases. Quantifying total and substrate-specific proteasome activity in intact cells and living animals would enable analysis in vivo of proteasomal regulation and facilitate the screening and validation of potential modulators of the proteasome or its substrates. We discuss examples of tetra-ubiquitin or IkappaBalpha fused to firefly luciferase as genetically encoded reporters for monitoring total and IkappaBalpha-specific proteasomal activity by bioluminescence imaging. Such technology enables repetitive, temporally resolved, and regionally targeted assessment of proteasomal activity in vivo.
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PMID:Monitoring proteasome activity in cellulo and in living animals by bioluminescent imaging: technical considerations for design and use of genetically encoded reporters. 1633 79

A previous exposure to a non-harmful ischemic insult (preconditioning) protects the brain against subsequent harmful ischemia (ischemic tolerance). In contrast to delayed gene-mediated ischemic tolerance, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that regulate rapid ischemic tolerance, which occurs within 1 h following preconditioning. Here we have investigated the degradation of the pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member Bim as a mechanism of rapid ischemic tolerance. Bim protein levels were reduced 1 h following preconditioning and occurred concurrent with an increase in Bim ubiquitination. Ubiquitinated proteins are degraded by the proteasome, and inhibition of the proteasome with MG132 (a proteasome inhibitor) prevented Bim degradation and blocked rapid ischemic tolerance. Inhibition of p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein kinase activation by U0126 reduced Bim ubiquitination and Bim degradation and blocked rapid ischemic tolerance. Finally, inhibition of Bim expression using antisense oligonucleotides also reduced cell death following ischemic challenge. Our results suggest that following preconditioning ischemia, Bim is rapidly degraded by the ubiquitin-proteasome system, resulting in rapid ischemic tolerance. This suggests that the rapid degradation of cell death-promoting proteins by the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway may represent a novel therapeutic strategy to reduce cell damage following neuropathological insults, e.g. stroke.
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PMID:Rapid degradation of Bim by the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway mediates short-term ischemic tolerance in cultured neurons. 1643 16

The proteasome recently gained an exceptional attention as a novel drug target, therefore its inhibitors became important subjects for rational drug design. A synthetic competitive inhibitor Velcade was lately approved in a fast-track process to treat multiple myeloma and is tested with other types of cancers. The proteasome is a major proteolytic assembly in eukaryotic cells responsible for the degradation of most intracellular proteins, including proteins crucial to cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway has been implicated in many diseases such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, inflammation, and stroke. The activity of the proteasome can be blocked for therapeutic purposes with competitive inhibitors like Velcade, which trigger apoptosis in target cells. However, much more versatile outcomes and a true control of the proteasome can be achieved with allosteric regulators. Certain natural proteins and peptides bind to the catalytic core of the proteasome and allosterically induce a wide array of effects ranging from changes in product size to substrate-specific inhibition. Designing small synthetic compounds allosterically interacting with the proteasome represents a novel approach that has enormous potential for the treatment of a wide range of diseases. Below we provide a review of current knowledge about proteasomal allosteric ligands.
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PMID:Allosteric regulators of the proteasome: potential drugs and a novel approach for drug design. 1647 11

Dysfunction of the ubiquitin-proteasome system has recently been linked to stroke. Ischemia may cause increased protein misfolding and inhibit the proteasome, shifting the balance from free ubiquitin to conjugated ubiquitin. In this study, we examine the effect of hypothermia on the distribution of total and free ubiquitin, as well as the levels of conjugated ubiquitin after experimental stroke using a focal cerebral ischemia model. We show that hypothermia prevents redistribution of ubiquitin following ischemia, largely through preservation of intracellular cytoplasmic free ubiquitin. We also show that hypothermia blocks the increase in conjugated ubiquitin observed after stroke. Our data indicate that hypothermia's neuroprotection is mediated, in part, through preservation of ubiquitin-proteasome system function.
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PMID:Hypothermia blocks ischemic changes in ubiquitin distribution and levels following stroke. 1704 55

Kainate receptors have been implicated in excitotoxic neuronal death induced by diseases such as epilepsy and stroke. Actinfilin, a synaptic member of the BTB-Kelch protein family, is known to bind to the actin cytoskeleton. However, little is understood about its function at the synapse. Here, we report that actinfilin is able to bind to GluR6, a kainate-type glutamate receptor subunit, and target GluR6 for degradation. Like many members of its protein family, actinfilin acts as a substrate adaptor, binding Cullin 3 (Cul3) and linking GluR6 to the E3 ubiquitin-ligase complex. We map this interaction to the Kelch repeat domain of actinfilin and the GluR6 C terminus. Co-immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence studies show that GluR6 is ubiquitinated, and that GluR6 levels are decreased by actinfilin overexpression but increased when actinfilin levels are reduced by specific RNA interference. Furthermore, actinfilin-Cul3 interactions appear to be important for regulating surface GluR6 expression. Synaptic GluR6 levels are elevated in mice with lowered neuronal Cul3 expression and when dominant-negative forms of Cul3 are transfected into hippocampal neurons. Together our data demonstrate that actinfilin acts as a scaffold, linking GluR6 to the Cul3 ubiquitin ligase to provide a novel mechanism for kainate receptor degradation.
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PMID:Actinfilin is a Cul3 substrate adaptor, linking GluR6 kainate receptor subunits to the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. 1706 63


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