Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Glycosylation is the most common post-translational modification in the brain. Aberrant glycosylation patterns are present in cerebrospinal fluid and brain tissue from Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Specifically, dysregulation of a particular form of terminal glycoconjugate modification, sialylation, has been identified in AD.

Quinolinic acid links kidney injury to brain toxicity.

Kidney dysfunction often leads to neurological impairment, yet the complex kidney-brain relationship remains elusive. We employed spatial and bulk metabolomics to investigate a mouse model of rapid kidney failure induced by mouse double minute 2 ( conditional deletion in the kidney tubules to interrogate kidney and brain metabolism. Pathway enrichment analysis of focused plasma metabolomics panel pinpointed tryptophan metabolism as the most altered pathway with kidney failure.

Distinct patterns of plaque and microglia glycosylation in Alzheimer's disease.

Glycosylation is the most common form of post-translational modification in the brain. Aberrant glycosylation has been observed in cerebrospinal fluid and brain tissue of Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases, including dysregulation of terminal sialic acid (SA) modifications. While alterations in sialylation have been identified in AD, the localization of SA modifications on cellular or aggregate-associated glycans is largely unknown because of limited spatial resolution of commonly utilized methods.

Increased α-2,6 sialic acid on microglia in amyloid pathology is resistant to oseltamivir.

Terminal sialic acid residues are present on most glycoproteins and glycolipids, but levels of sialylation are known to change in the brain throughout the lifespan as well as during disease. Sialic acids are important for numerous cellular processes including cell adhesion, neurodevelopment, and immune regulation as well as pathogen invasion into host cells. Neuraminidase enzymes, also known as sialidases, are responsible for removal of terminal sialic acids in a process known as desialylation.