Alpha-Synuclein is degraded by both autophagy and the proteasome

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra and the formation of aggregates (Lewy bodies) in neurons. alpha-Synuclein is the major protein in Lewy bodies and rare mutations in alpha-synuclein cause early-onset PD. Consequently, alpha-synuclein is implicated in the pathogenesis of PD. Here, we have investigated the degradation pathways of alpha-synuclein, using a stable inducible PC12 cell model, where the expression of exogenous human wild-type, A30P, or A53T alpha-synuclein can be switched on and off. We have used a panel of inhibitors/stimulators of autophagy and proteasome function and followed alpha-synuclein degradation in these cells. We found that not only is alpha-synuclein degraded by the proteasome, but it is also degraded by autophagy. A role for autophagy was further supported by the presence of alpha-synuclein in organelles with the ultrastructural features of autophagic vesicles. Since rapamycin, a stimulator of autophagy, increased clearance of alpha-synuclein, it merits consideration as a potential therapeutic for Parkinsons disease, as it is designed for chronic use in humans.     

Autophagy and its possible roles in nervous system diseases, damage and repair

Increased numbers of autophagosomes/autophagic vacuoles are seen in a variety of physiological and pathological states in the nervous system. In many cases, it is unclear if this phenomenon is the result of increased autophagic activity or decreased autophagosome-lysosome fusion. The functional significance of autophagy and its relationship to cell death in the nervous system is also poorly understood. In this review, we have considered these issues in the context of acute neuronal injury and a range of chronic neurodegenerative conditions, including the Lurcher mouse, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and prion diseases. While many issues remain unresolved, these conditions raise the possibility that autophagy can have either deleterious or protective effects depending on the specific situation and stage in the pathological process.     

The rocky road to personalized medicine in acute myeloid leukaemia

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a malignant disorder of the myeloid blood lineage characterized by impaired differentiation and increased proliferation of hematopoietic precursor cells. Recent technological advances have led to an improved understanding of AML biology but also uncovered the enormous cytogenetic and molecular heterogeneity of the disease. Despite this heterogeneity, AML is mostly managed by a ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ approach consisting of intensive, highly toxic induction and consolidation chemotherapy. These treatment protocols have remained largely unchanged for the past several decades and only lead to a cure in approximately 30–35% of cases. The advent of targeted therapies in chronic myeloid leukaemia and other malignancies has sparked hope to improve patient outcome in AML. However, the implementation of targeted agents in AML therapy has been unexpectedly cumbersome and remains a difficult task due to a variety of disease‐ and patient‐specific factors. In this review, we describe current standard and investigational therapeutic strategies with a focus on targeted agents and highlight potential tools that might facilitate the development of targeted therapies for this fatal disease. The classes of agents described in this review include constitutively activated signalling pathway inhibitors, surface receptor targets, epigenetic modifiers, drugs targeting the interaction of the hematopoietic progenitor cell with the stroma and drugs that target the apoptotic machinery. The clinical context and outcome with these agents will be examined to gain insight about their optimal utilization.     

A quantitative analysis of excluded-site effects for highly cooperative binding systems

Binding isotherms can provide quantitive information regarding the stability of a molecular complex. Theorectical studies in recent years have been directed to systems in which a single ligand can exclude more than one polymer site (excluded-site effect). This system has minium of thre parameters to describe the binding data: the intrinsic binding constant, B; the remote-neighbor cooperative paramaters, σ_q and the number of excluded sites, q. It is suggested in the present communication that precise values for these three parameters can be obtained by utilizing the characteristics of two forms of data representation: θ vs ln m and θ/m vs θ, where θ is the degree of saturation (0?θ?1) and m is the molality of free ligand. The matrix generation method is used to obtain empirical equations relating the midpoint location and slope at the midpoint of the θ vs ln m plot to the three molecular parameters. A modified Scatchard theory is also presented for highly cooperative systems, which results in an expression relaing the maximum in the θ/m vs θ plot to the molecular parameters σ_q and q, thus providing the third equation for the three unknown parameters. The novel method f analysis is illustrated with the AMP-poly(L -arginine) and oligocytidylate–T7 DNA sstems.     

Developing sporophytes transition from an inducible to a constitutive ecological strategy of desiccation tolerance in the moss Aloina ambigua: effects of desiccation on fitness

Background and Aims Two ecological strategies of desiccation tolerance exist in plants, constitutive and inducible. Because of difficulties in culturing sporophytes, very little is known about desiccation tolerance in this generation and how desiccation affects sexual fitness.Methods Cultured sporophytes and vegetative shoots from a single genotype of the moss Aloina ambigua raised in the laboratory were tested for their strategy of desiccation tolerance by desiccating the shoot–sporophyte complex and vegetative shoots at different intensities, and comparing outcomes with those of undried shoot–sporophyte complexes and vegetative shoots. By using a dehardened clonal line, the effects of field, age and genetic variance among plants were removed.Key Results The gametophyte and embryonic sporophyte were found to employ a predominantly inducible strategy of desiccation tolerance, while the post-embryonic sporophyte was found to employ a moderately constitutive strategy of desiccation tolerance. Further, desiccation reduced sporophyte fitness, as measured by sporophyte mass, seta length and capsule size. However, the effects of desiccation on sporophyte fitness were reduced if the stress occurred during embryonic development as opposed to postembryonic desiccation.Conclusions The effects of desiccation on dehardened sporophytes of a bryophyte are shown for the first time. The transition from one desiccation tolerance strategy to the other in a single structure or generation is shown for only the second time in plants and for the first time in bryophytes. Finding degrees of inducible strategies of desiccation tolerance in different life phases prompts the formulation of a continuum hypothesis of ecological desiccation tolerance in mosses, where desiccation tolerance is not an either/or phenomenon, but varies in degree along a gradient of ecological inducibility.     

Inhibition of human cytochrome p450 1b1 further clarifies its role in the activation of dibenzo[a,l]pyrene in cells in culture

Metabolic activation and DNA adduct formation of the carcinogenic aromatic hydrocarbon dibenzo[a,l]pyrene (DBP) was investigated in human mammary carcinoma MCF-7 cells and human cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1B1-expressing Chinese hamster V79 cells in culture. It has been shown that DBP is metabolically activated to DNA-binding diol epoxides both in vitro and in vivo. To further establish the role of human CYP1B1 in the activation of DBP, both cell lines were cotreated with DBP and a selective chemical inhibitor of CYP1B1, 2,4,3' ,5'-tetramethoxy-stilbene (TMS). Results from DBP-DNA adduct analyses revealed the complete inhibition of DNA binding when cells were cotreated with DBP and TMS in comparison to DBP alone. Inactivation of CYP1B1 by TMS was also demonstrated through a decrease in the 7-ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (EROD) activity in microsomes isolated from these cells. Emodin, 3-methyl-1,6,8-trihydroxyanthraquinone, an active ingredient of an herb, has been recently shown of being able to induce CYP1 gene expression. Examination of human CYP1B1 induction and EROD activity confirmed an increase in protein levels upon cotreatment with emodin and DBP. Despite increases in protein levels and enzyme activity, there was no significant change in DBP-DNA binding levels at very low substrate concentrations (17 nM). The data obtained in this study emphasize the central role of CYP1B1 in the activation of DBP in human cells in culture.     

Quinuclidinone O-Alkynyloximes with muscarinic agonist activity.

A series of quinuclidinone O-alkynyloximes (14-19) were synthesized and evaluated in radioligand displacement assays for binding affinities to M1-M3 muscarinic receptors. Radioligand displacement assays were carried out using [3H] oxotremorine-M and [3H] pirenzepine on rat cortical tissue and [3H] N-methylscopolamine on rat heart and submandibulary glands. Two alkynyloximes 15 and 18 had pirenzepine/oxotremorine M ratios which were indicative of muscarinic agonist and partial agonist activity, respectively. They were tested for their mnemonic effects in mice using the swimming escape task and found to attenuate scopolamine induced impairment of the task in mice at 2mg/kg. The results show that the O-alkynyloxime moiety linked to azacycles of appropriate size and rigidity (for example quinuclidine and tropane) is a potentially useful muscarinic pharmacophore that can be exploited for the design of muscarinic agonists.     

Intermolecular disulfide bond formation in the NEMO dimer requires Cys54 and Cys347

NEMO is an essential regulatory component of the IκB kinase (IKK) complex, which controls activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway. Herein, we show that NEMO exists as a disulfide-bonded dimer when isolated from several cell types and analyzed by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under non-reducing conditions. Treatment of cells with hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) induces further formation of NEMO dimers. Disulfide bond-mediated formation of NEMO dimers requires Cys54 and Cys347. The ability of these residues to form disulfide bonds is consistent with their location in a NEMO dimer structure that we generated by molecular modeling. We also show that pretreatment with H₂O₂ decreases TNFα-induced IKK activity in NEMO-reconstituted cells, and that TNFα has a diminished ability to activate NF-κB DNA binding in cells reconstituted with NEMO mutant C54/347A. This study implicates NEMO as a target of redox regulation and presents the first structural model for the NEMO protein.     

Oligomeric protein structure networks: insights into protein-protein interactions

Background  

Protein-protein association is essential for a variety of cellular processes and hence a large number of investigations are being carried out to understand the principles of protein-protein interactions. In this study, oligomeric protein structures are viewed from a network perspective to obtain new insights into protein association. Structure graphs of proteins have been constructed from a non-redundant set of protein oligomer crystal structures by considering amino acid residues as nodes and the edges are based on the strength of the non-covalent interactions between the residues. The analysis of such networks has been carried out in terms of amino acid clusters and hubs (highly connected residues) with special emphasis to protein interfaces.