Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0040822 (tremor)
 18,428 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease. This disease is mainly characterized by tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity and postural instability that results primarily from a loss of dopaminergic neurons of the nigrostriatal pathway. MPTP (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine) is well known to damage the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway, as seen in Parkinson's disease. Recent evidence shows that glial-related response plays a key role in the MPTP neurotoxic process, and the blockade of glial activation may be a new therapeutic approach to treating Parkinson's disease. In view of these new insights, this article suggests that the overexpression of S100beta protein secreted by glial cells may be an exacerbating factor in the neurodegeneration of dopaminergic cells in MPTP-treated animals. (c) 2002 Prous Science. All rights reserved.
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PMID:Glial Cells as a Target for the Development of New Therapies for Treating Parkinson's Disease. 1267 99

To further characterize the recently described gap junction gene connexin 47 (Cx47), we generated Cx47-null mice by replacing the Cx47 coding DNA with an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) reporter gene, which was thus placed under control of the endogenous Cx47 promoter. Homozygous mutant mice were fertile and showed no obvious morphological or behavioral abnormalities. Colocalization of EGFP fluorescence and immunofluorescence of cell marker proteins revealed that Cx47 was mainly expressed in oligodendrocytes in highly myelinated CNS tissues and in few calcium-binding protein S100beta subunit-positive cells but not in neurons or peripheral sciatic nerve. This corrects our previous conclusion that Cx47 mRNA is expressed in brain and spinal cord neurons (Teubner et al., 2001). Cx47 protein was detected by Western blot analysis after immunoprecipitation in CNS tissues of wild-type mice but not in heart or Cx47-deficient tissues. Electron microscopic analysis of CNS white matter in Cx47-deficient mice revealed a conspicuous vacuolation of nerve fibers, particularly at the site of the optic nerve where axons are first contacted by oligodendrocytes and myelination starts. Initial analyses of Cx32/Cx47-double-deficient mice showed that these mice developed an action tremor and died on average at 51 d after birth. The central white matter of these double-deficient mice exhibited much more abundant vacuolation in nerve fibers than mice deficient only in Cx47.
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PMID:Connexin 47 (Cx47)-deficient mice with enhanced green fluorescent protein reporter gene reveal predominant oligodendrocytic expression of Cx47 and display vacuolized myelin in the CNS. 1280 95

Parkinson's disease is one of the major neurodegenerative disorders. This disease is mainly characterized by tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity and postural instability that results primarily from a loss of dopaminergic neurons of nigrostriatal pathway. MPTP (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine) is well known to damage the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway as seen in Parkinson's disease. Recent evidence shows that glial-related response plays a key role in the MPTP neurotoxic process and the blockade of glial activation may be a new therapeutic approach, which has applicability for Parkinson's disease. On the other hand, dopamine transporters (DAT) are important to the appearance of MPTP neurotoxicity because to be neurotoxin, an MPTP metabolite must first gain access to the dopaminergic neurons via DAT. Several studies suggest that DAT is a mandatory factor for expression of MPTP neurotoxicity and may explain the selective neuronal damage in the substantia nigra in MPTP toxicity. Therefore, DAT is thought to play an important role in the MPTP neurotoxic process and specific blockade of DAT with high-affinity inhibitors in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, where the effective levels of dopamine are markedly reduced, may have beneficial consequences. In view of these new insights, this article suggests that the overexpression of S100beta protein secreted by glial cells may be an exacerbating factor in the neurodegeneration of dopaminergic cells. In this review, we also demonstrate the possible role of DAT in the brain cells in MPTP neurotoxicity. Thus this review provides valuable information for progressive neurodegeneration of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic neuronal pathway.
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PMID:Mechanisms of MPTP toxicity and their implications for therapy of Parkinson's disease. 1561 2