Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0752347 (Dementia with Lewy bodies)
 1,653 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The identification of rare monogenic forms of Parkinson's disease (PD) has provided tremendous insight into the molecular pathogenesis of this disorder. Heritable mutations in alpha-synuclein, parkin, DJ-1 and PINK1 cause familial forms of PD. In the more common sporadic form of PD, oxidative stress and derangements in mitochondrial complex-I function are considered to play a prominent role in disease pathogenesis. However, the relationship of DJ-1 with other PD-linked genes and oxidative stress has not been explored. Here, we show that pathogenic mutant forms of DJ-1 specifically but differentially associate with parkin, an E3 ubiquitin ligase. Chemical cross-linking shows that pathogenic DJ-1 mutants exhibit impairments in homo-dimer formation, suggesting that parkin may bind to monomeric DJ-1. Parkin fails to specifically ubiquitinate and enhance the degradation of L166P and M26I mutant DJ-1, but instead promotes their stability in cultured cells. The interaction of parkin with L166P DJ-1 may involve a larger protein complex that contains CHIP and Hsp70, perhaps accounting for the lack of parkin-mediated ubiquitination. Oxidative stress also promotes an interaction between DJ-1 and parkin, but this does not result in the ubiquitination or degradation of DJ-1. Parkin-mediated alterations in DJ-1 protein stability may be pathogenically relevant as DJ-1 levels are dramatically increased in the detergent-insoluble fraction from sporadic PD/DLB brains, but are reduced in the insoluble fraction from parkin-linked autosomal recessive juvenile-onset PD brains. These data potentially link DJ-1 and parkin in a common molecular pathway at multiple levels that may have important implications for understanding the pathogenesis of inherited and sporadic PD.
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PMID:Association of DJ-1 and parkin mediated by pathogenic DJ-1 mutations and oxidative stress. 1552 61

Studies of familial forms of Parkinson's disease (PD) have identified a growing number of genes that derive from the loci given the nomenclature PARK1-PARK13 (OMIM 168600). The alpha-synuclein gene has been implicated in rare autosomal dominant PD because of either mis-sense mutations (PARK1) or gene multiplications (PARK4). Moreover, UCHL1 (PARK5), LRRK2 (PARK8) and HTRA2 (PARK13) have been identified as causative genes for autosomal dominant PD, whereas parkin (PARK2), PINK1 (PARK6), DJ-1 (PARK7) and ATP13A2 (PARK9) have been identified as causative genes for autosomal recessive PD. Neuropathological examination of the kindreds of PARK1/4 showed Lewy body pathology ranging from classic PD to diffuse Lewy body disease. The pathological findings of PARK3 are similar to those of classic PD. In contrast, autopsies of patients with PARK2 showed nigral cell loss without Lewy bodies, although exceptions have been reported. Several kindreds of PARK8 included cases with Lewy body pathology, tau pathology, or with nigral cell loss in the absence of obvious protein deposition. Ubiquitin-positive inclusions that are negative for alpha-synuclein and tau are also seen in some cases. Moreover, widespread Lewy body pathology was also reported in several cases of familial Alzheimer's disease with presenilin-1 mutations.
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PMID:[Pathology of familial Parkinson's disease]. 1771 21

Autosomal-recessive early-onset parkinsonism is clinically and genetically heterogeneous. The genetic causes of approximately 50% of autosomal-recessive early-onset forms of Parkinson disease (PD) remain to be elucidated. Homozygozity mapping and exome sequencing in 62 isolated individuals with early-onset parkinsonism and confirmed consanguinity followed by data mining in the exomes of 1,348 PD-affected individuals identified, in three isolated subjects, homozygous or compound heterozygous truncating mutations in vacuolar protein sorting 13C (VPS13C). VPS13C mutations are associated with a distinct form of early-onset parkinsonism characterized by rapid and severe disease progression and early cognitive decline; the pathological features were striking and reminiscent of diffuse Lewy body disease. In cell models, VPS13C partly localized to the outer membrane of mitochondria. Silencing of VPS13C was associated with lower mitochondrial membrane potential, mitochondrial fragmentation, increased respiration rates, exacerbated PINK1/Parkin-dependent mitophagy, and transcriptional upregulation of PARK2 in response to mitochondrial damage. This work suggests that loss of function of VPS13C is a cause of autosomal-recessive early-onset parkinsonism with a distinctive phenotype of rapid and severe progression.
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PMID:Loss of VPS13C Function in Autosomal-Recessive Parkinsonism Causes Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Increases PINK1/Parkin-Dependent Mitophagy. 2721 32

Although exact causes of Parkinson disease (PD) remain enigmatic, mitochondrial dysfunction is increasingly appreciated as a key determinant of dopaminergic neuron susceptibility in both familial and sporadic PD. Two genes associated with recessive, early-onset PD encode the ubiquitin (Ub) kinase PINK1 and the E3 Ub ligase PRKN/PARK2/Parkin, which together orchestrate a protective mitochondrial quality control (mitoQC) pathway. Upon stress, both enzymes cooperatively identify and decorate damaged mitochondria with phosphorylated poly-Ub (p-S65-Ub) chains. This specific label is subsequently recognized by autophagy receptors that further facilitate mitochondrial degradation in lysosomes (mitophagy). Here, we analyzed human post-mortem brain specimens and identified distinct pools of p-S65-Ub-positive structures that partially colocalized with markers of mitochondria, autophagy, lysosomes and/or granulovacuolar degeneration bodies. We further quantified levels and distribution of the 'mitophagy tag' in 2 large cohorts of brain samples from normal aging and Lewy body disease (LBD) cases using unbiased digital pathology. Somatic p-S65-Ub structures independently increased with age and disease in distinct brain regions and enhanced levels in LBD brain were age- and Braak tangle stage-dependent. Additionally, we observed significant correlations of p-S65-Ub with LBs and neurofibrillary tangle levels in disease. The degree of co-existing p-S65-Ub signals and pathological PD hallmarks increased in the pre-mature stage, but decreased in the late stage of LB or tangle aggregation. Altogether, our study provides further evidence for a potential pathogenic overlap among different forms of PD and suggests that p-S65-Ub can serve as a biomarker for mitochondrial damage in aging and disease.
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PMID:Age- and disease-dependent increase of the mitophagy marker phospho-ubiquitin in normal aging and Lewy body disease. 2994 76