Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P50583 (asymmetrical)
 12,197 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

During corticogenesis, progenitors divide within the ventricular zone where they rely on radial process extensions, formed by radial glial cell (RG) scaffolds, along which they migrate to the proper layers of the cerebral cortex. Although the microtubule-associated proteins doublecortin (DCX) and doublecortin-like kinase (DCLK) are critically involved in dynamic rearrangement of the cytoskeletal machinery that allow migration, little is known about their role in early corticogenesis. Here we have functionally characterized a mouse splice-variant of DCLK, doublecortin-like (DCL), exhibiting 73% amino acid sequence identity with DCX over its entire length. Unlike DCX, DCL is expressed from embryonic day 8 onwards throughout the early neuroepithelium. It is localized in mitotic cells, RGs and radial processes. DCL knockdown using siRNA in vitro induces spindle collapse in dividing neuroblastoma cells, whereas overexpression results in elongated and asymmetrical mitotic spindles. In vivo knockdown of the DCLK gene by in utero electroporation significantly reduced cell numbers in the inner proliferative zones and dramatically disrupted most radial processes. Our data emphasize the unique role of the DCLK gene in mitotic spindle integrity during early neurogenesis. In addition, they indicate crucial involvement of DCLK in RG proliferation and their radial process stability, a finding that has thus far not been attributed to DCX or DCLK.
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PMID:Doublecortin-like, a microtubule-associated protein expressed in radial glia, is crucial for neuronal precursor division and radial process stability. 1731 68

Melatonin attenuates the short-term consequences of brain ischemia in several animal models. However, there is scant information regarding its efficacy for improving the long-term outcome. To further address that issue, we subjected gerbils to 5-min bilateral carotid occlusion. Some gerbils received acute peri-surgical administration of melatonin while others received continuous melatonin in their water. The gerbils' brains were histologically assessed at 20 wk postsurgery. Chronic but not acute melatonin attenuated ischemia-induced hyperactivity at 3 days postsurgery. Twenty weeks postsurgery, the ischemic gerbils showed varying degrees of bilateral loss of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells and elevation of glial fibrillary acidic protein immunoreactivity there. Both the cell loss and the immunoreactivity were markedly asymmetrical for some gerbils. Neither acute nor chronic melatonin altered this pattern of CA1 cell loss and glial immunoreactivity increase. Ischemia increased the number of CA1 cells that were immunoreactive for doublecortin (DCX), a marker for newborn neurons. This increase in CA1 DCX expression was not affected by either melatonin treatment. However, both acute and chronic melatonin reduced the number of DCX immunoreactive neurons in the dentate gyrus. Thus, neither acute nor chronic melatonin altered the long-term neural outcome of forebrain ischemia, although chronic administration seemed to attenuate the short-term behavioral effect. It is suggested that persistently high brain levels of melatonin may be essential for long-term neuroprotection against ischemia. The possibility that melatonin may modulate hippocampal neurogenesis merits further exploration both in normal animals and in models of brain insult.
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PMID:Chronic and acute melatonin effects in gerbil global forebrain ischemia: long-term neural and behavioral outcome. 1828 66

The fine tuning of proliferation and neurogenesis, neuronal migration and differentiation and connectivity underlies the proper development of the cerebral cortex. Mutations in genes involved in these processes are responsible for neurodevelopmental disorders, such as cortical dysgeneses, which are usually associated with severe mental retardation and epilepsy. Over the past few years, the importance of cytoskeleton components in cellular processes crucial for cortical development has emerged from a body of functional data. This was reinforced by the association of mutations in the LIS1 and DCX genes, which both encode proteins involved in microtubule (MT) homeostasis, with cerebral cortex developmental disorders. The recent discovery of patients with lissencephaly and bilateral asymmetrical polymicrogyria (PMG) carrying mutations in the alpha- and beta-tubulin-encoding genes TUBA1A and TUBB2B further supports this view, and also raises interesting questions about the specific roles played by certain tubulin isotypes during the development of the cortex.
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PMID:Tubulin-related cortical dysgeneses: microtubule dysfunction underlying neuronal migration defects. 1986 38

Unilateral peripheral nerve chronic constriction injury (CCI) has been widely used as a research model of human neuropathic pain. Recently, CCI has been shown to induce spinal cord adult neurogenesis, which may contribute to the chronic increase in nociceptive sensitivity. Here, we show that CCI also induces rapid and profound asymmetrical anatomical rearrangements in the adult rodent cerebellum and pons. This remodelling occurs throughout the hindbrain, and in addition to regions involved in pain processing, also affects other sensory modalities. We demonstrate that these anatomical changes, partially reversible in the long term, result from adult neurogenesis. Neurogenic markers Mash1, Ngn2, doublecortin and Notch3 are widely expressed in the rodent cerebellum and pons, both under normal and injured conditions. CCI-induced hindbrain structural plasticity is absent in Notch3 knockout mice, a strain with impaired neuronal differentiation, demonstrating its dependence on adult neurogenesis. Grey matter and white matter structural changes in human brain, as a result of pain, injury or learned behaviours have been previously detected using non-invasive neuroimaging techniques. Because neurogenesis-mediated structural plasticity is thought to be restricted to the hippocampus and the subventricular zone, such anatomical rearrangements in other parts of the brain have been thought to result from neuronal plasticity or glial hypertrophy. Our findings suggest the presence of extensive neurogenesis-based structural plasticity in the adult mammalian brain, which may maintain a memory of basal sensory levels, and act as an adaptive mechanism to changes in sensory inputs.
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PMID:Peripheral nerve injury induces adult brain neurogenesis and remodelling. 2766 7