Mitochondrial polymorphisms significantly reduce the risk of Parkinson disease

Mitochondrial (mt) impairment, particularly within complex I of the electron transport system, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson disease (PD). More than half of mitochondrially encoded polypeptides form part of the reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase (NADH) complex I enzyme. To test the hypothesis that mtDNA variation contributes to PD expression, we genotyped 10 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that define the European mtDNA haplogroups in 609 white patients with PD and 340 unaffected white control subjects. Overall, individuals classified as haplogroup J (odds ratio [OR] 0.55; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.34-0.91; P=.02) or K (OR 0.52; 95% CI 0.30-0.90; P=.02) demonstrated a significant decrease in risk of PD versus individuals carrying the most common haplogroup, H. Furthermore, a specific SNP that defines these two haplogroups, 10398G, is strongly associated with this protective effect (OR 0.53; 95% CI 0.39-0.73; P=.0001). SNP 10398G causes a nonconservative amino acid change from threonine to alanine within the NADH dehydrogenase 3 (ND3) of complex I. After stratification by sex, this decrease in risk appeared stronger in women than in men (OR 0.43; 95% CI 0.27-0.71; P=.0009). In addition, SNP 9055A of ATP6 demonstrated a protective effect for women (OR 0.45; 95% CI 0.22-0.93; P=.03). Our results suggest that ND3 is an important factor in PD susceptibility among white individuals and could help explain the role of complex I in PD expression.     

A new modulated Hebbian learning rule--biologically plausible method for local computation of a principal subspace

This paper presents one possible implementation of a transformation that performs linear mapping to a lower-dimensional subspace. Principal component subspace will be the one that will be analyzed. Idea implemented in this paper represents generalization of the recently proposed infinity OH neural method for principal component extraction. The calculations in the newly proposed method are performed locally--a feature which is usually considered as desirable from the biological point of view. Comparing to some other wellknown methods, proposed synaptic efficacy learning rule requires less information about the value of the other efficacies to make single efficacy modification. Synaptic efficacies are modified by implementation of Modulated Hebb-type (MH) learning rule. Slightly modified MH algorithm named Modulated Hebb Oja (MHO) algorithm, will be also introduced. Structural similarity of the proposed network with part of the retinal circuit will be presented, too.     

Valproic acid-mediated Hsp70 induction and anti-apoptotic neuroprotection in SH-SY5Y cells

Valproic acid (VPA), an anticonvulsant and mood-stabilizing drug, has been reported to exert neuroprotection against a variety of insults. We now show that VPA attenuates rotenone (a potent complex I inhibitor)-induced apoptosis through the induction of heat shock protein 70, which may interact with apoptotic-protease-activating factor 1. Activation of p-Akt, p-Bcl-2, as well as p-Erk1/2 by VPA may be co-contributors to the protection.     

Carbon catabolite repression by the catabolite control protein CcpA in Staphylococcus xylosus

Carbon catabolic repression (CR) by the catabolite control protein CcpA has been analyzed in Staphylococcus xylosus. Genes encoding components needed to utilize lactose, sucrose, and maltose were found to be repressed by CcpA. In addition, the ccpA gene is under negative autogenous control. Among several tested sugars, glucose caused strongest CcpA-dependent repression. Glucose can enter S. xylosus in nonphosphorylated form via the glucose uptake protein GlcU. Internal glucose is then phosphorylated by the glucose kinase GlkA. Alternatively, glucose can be transported and concomitantly phosphorylated by glucose-specific permease(s) of the phosphotransferase system (PTS). S. xylosus mutant strains deficient in GlcU or GlkA showed partial relief of glucose-specific, CcpA-dependent repression. Likewise, blocking PTS activity completely by inactivation of the gene encoding the general PTS protein enzyme I resulted in diminished glucose-mediated repression. Thus, both glucose entry routes contribute to glucose-specific CR in S. xylosus. The sugar transport activity of the PTS is not required to trigger glucose-specific repression. The phosphocarrier protein HPr however, is absolutely essential for CcpA activity. Inactivation of the HPr gene led to a complete loss of CR. Repression is also abolished upon inactivation of the HPr kinase gene or by replacing serine at position 46 of HPr by alanine. These results clearly show that HPr kinase provides the signal, seryl-phosphorylated HPr, to activate CcpA in S. xylosus.     

Time course of isolated rat fundus response to muscarinic agonists: a measure of intrinsic efficacy.

The establishment of a dose-response relationship and its quantification is the usual procedure for analysing drug action on an isolated organ. However, the time course of the effect seems to be an inherent characteristic of the agonist which produces it. In our study, we have analyzed the time-response curves of four cholinergic agonists (acetylcholine, methacholine, carbachol and bethanechol) which produce tonic contractions of the isolated rat gastric fundus. The order of affinity of agonists to muscarinic receptors on the rat fundus were carbachol > bethanechol > methacholine > acetylcholine (K(A) values: 46 +/- 12, 84 +/- 21, 380 +/- 110 and 730 +/- 120 nM, respectively). The effective concentrations which produced 60% of the maximal response (EC60) were used for establishing the time-response curves. The time-response curves were also recorded after partial alkylation of muscarinic receptors with phenoxybenzamine, after exposure of the isolated rat fundus to physostigmine and after addition of supramaximal concentrations of the agonists. The experimental time-response curve for acetylcholine was on the extreme left, followed by curves for methacholine, bethanechol and carbachol, respectively. Phenoxybenzamine and supramaximal doses of the agonists did not change the order of response development in time, but supramaximal doses shifted all curves to the left and phenoxybenzamine shifted all time-response curves to the right. Only physostigmine shifted the time-response curve for methacholine to the right. The results of our study suggest that the response rate of the isolated rat gastric fundus to cholinergic agonists depends on the intrinsic activity of these agents, but not on their affinity for muscarinic receptors.     

Molecular area involved in the in-vitro dimerization of the murine p55 IL-2 receptor.

In order to study structure-function relationships of the M(r) 55,000 subunit of the murine IL-2R (p55 IL-2R) by epitope mapping, we have expressed the p55 IL-2R molecule in a cell-free translation system. Under these in vitro conditions, we detected the expected p55 IL-2R polypeptide initiated at Met 1 and, in addition, two internally initiated molecules at Met 64 and Met 105. In this report we describe that from such a mixture, containing three molecular species of p55 IL-2R, mAb 135D5 immunoprecipitated the polypeptide initiated at Met 105 although this N-terminally truncated form of p55 IL-2R does not contain its epitope located between amino acids 72-88. This observation can be taken as a further evidence for the formation of p55 IL-2R dimers. Finally, we identified the region implicated in the formation of p55 IL-2R dimers close to the transmembrane region of the molecule.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Mycobacterium shimoidei</Emphasis>—cavitary pulmonary disease with favorable outcome

We report a case of cavitary pulmonary disease caused by Mycobacterium shimoidei in 67-year-old female with history of asthma. Even though susceptibility testing was not available, choice of treatment regimen (streptomycin, rifampicin, ethambutol, and clarithromycin), based on a few cases with favorable outcome reported in the literature, resulted with an excellent clinical, microbiological, and radiological response. This is the first report of pulmonary disease caused by M. shimoidei, but also the first ever isolation of M. shimoidei in Croatia.     

Gadd45alpha regulates p38-dependent dendritic cell cytokine production and Th1 differentiation

Gadd45alpha inhibits the activation of p38 by the T cell alternative pathway involving phosphorylation of p38 Tyr(323). Given that T cell p38 may play a role in Th1 development, the response to Th-skewing Ags was analyzed in Gadd45alpha(-/-) mice. Despite constitutively increased p38 activity in Gadd45alpha(-/-) T cells, the Th1 immune response to Toxoplasma gondii Ag (STAg), was diminished. In contrast to T cells, dendritic cells (DC) lacked the alternative p38 activation pathway. Gadd45alpha(-/-) DCs responded to STAg with low levels of MAP kinase cascade-dependent p38 activation, IL-12 production, and CD40 expression. Wild-type T cells transferred into Gadd45alpha(-/-) recipients had a diminished Th1 response to STAg, whereas Gadd45alpha(-/-) T cells transferred into wild-type hosts behaved normally. Therefore, Gadd45alpha has tissue-specific and opposing functions on p38 activity, and Gadd45alpha-regulated p38 activation in DCs is a critical event in Th1 polarization in vivo.     

ATM prevents the persistence and propagation of chromosome breaks in lymphocytes

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) induce a signal transmitted by the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase, which suppresses illegitimate joining of DSBs and activates cell-cycle checkpoints. Here we show that a significant fraction of mature ATM-deficient lymphocytes contain telomere-deleted ends produced by failed end joining during V(D)J recombination. These RAG-1/2 endonuclease-dependent, terminally deleted chromosomes persist in peripheral lymphocytes for at least 2 weeks in vivo and are stable over several generations in vitro. Restoration of ATM kinase activity in mature lymphocytes that have transiently lost ATM function leads to loss of cells with terminally deleted chromosomes. Thus, maintenance of genomic stability in lymphocytes requires faithful end joining as well a checkpoint that prevents the long-term persistence and transmission of DSBs. Silencing this checkpoint permits DNA ends produced by V(D)J recombination in a lymphoid precursor to serve as substrates for translocations with chromosomes subsequently damaged by other means in mature cells.