The gene encodes LR11/SorLA, a protein that binds β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) and drives its intracellular trafficking. mutations, occurring frequently in a subset of familial cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD), have been documented, but their pathogenic potential is not yet clear and questions remain concerning their putative influence on the physiopathological processing of APP. We have assessed the influence of two mutations that were described as likely disease-causing and that were associated with either benign (SorLA) or severe (SorLA) AD phenotypes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) is one of the key events contributing to Alzheimer's disease (AD) etiology. Canonical cleavages by β- and γ-secretases lead to Aβ production which accumulate in amyloid plaques. Recently, the matrix metalloprotease MT5-MMP, referred to as η-secretase, has been identified as a novel APP cleaving enzyme producing a transmembrane fragment, ηCTF that undergoes subsequent cleavages by α- and β-secretases yielding the Aηα and Aηβ peptides, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkin (PK) is an E3-ligase harboring tumor suppressor properties that has been associated to various cancer types including glioblastoma (GBM). However, PK is also a transcription factor (TF), the contribution of which to GBM etiology remains to be established. The impact of PK on GBM cells proliferation was analyzed by real-time impedance measurement and flow cytometry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkinson disease (PD)-affected brains show consistent endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and mitophagic dysfunctions. The mechanisms underlying these perturbations and how they are directly linked remain a matter of questions. XBP1 is a transcription factor activated upon ER stress after unconventional splicing by the nuclease ERN1/IREα thereby yielding XBP1s, whereas PINK1 is a kinase considered as the sensor of mitochondrial physiology and a master gatekeeper of mitophagy process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkinson's disease (PD) is a multifactorial age-related movement disorder in which defects of both mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) have been reported. The unfolded protein response (UPR) has emerged as a key cellular dysfunction associated with the etiology of the disease. The UPR involves a coordinated response initiated in the endoplasmic reticulum that grants the correct folding of proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrains that are affected by Alzheimer's disease (AD) are characterized by the overload of extracellular amyloid β (Aβ) peptides, but recent data from cellular and animal models propose that Aβ deposition is preceded by intraneuronal accumulation of the direct precursor of Aβ, C99. These studies indicate that C99 accumulation firstly occurs within endosomal and lysosomal compartments and that it contributes to early-stage AD-related endosomal-lysosomal-autophagic defects. Our previous work also suggests that C99 accumulation itself could be a consequence of defective lysosomal-autophagic degradation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDysregulation of the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) Ca homeostasis and subsequent ER stress activation occur in Alzheimer Disease (AD). We studied the contribution of the human truncated isoform of the sarco-endoplasmic reticulum Ca ATPase 1 (S1T) to AD. We examined S1T expression in human AD-affected brains and its functional consequences in cellular and transgenic mice AD models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF() is a key gene involved in both familial and sporadic Parkinson's disease that encodes parkin (PK). Since its discovery by the end of the 90s, both functional and more recently, structural studies led to a consensual view of PK as an E3 ligase only. It is generally considered that this function conditions the cellular load of a subset of cytosolic proteins prone to proteasomal degradation and that a loss of E3 ligase function triggers an accumulation of potentially toxic substrates and, consequently, a neuronal loss.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFp53 is a transcription factor that is implicated in the control of both apoptotic and autophagic cell death. This tumor suppressor elicits both pro-autophagic and anti-autophagic phenotypes depending of its intracellular localization. The ability of p53 to repress autophagy has been exclusively associated to its cytoplasmic localization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mitophagy and mitochondrial dynamics alterations are two major hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases. Dysfunctional mitochondria accumulate in Alzheimer's disease-affected brains by yet unexplained mechanisms.
Methods: We combined cell biology, molecular biology, and pharmacological approaches to unravel a novel molecular pathway by which presenilins control phosphatase and tensin homolog-induced kinase 1 (Pink-1) expression and transcription.
X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1) is a unique basic region leucine zipper transcription factor isolated two decades ago in a search for regulators of major histocompatibility complex class II gene expression. XBP1 is a very complex protein regulating many physiological functions, including immune system, inflammatory responses, and lipid metabolism. Evidence over the past few years suggests that XBP1 also plays important roles in pathological settings since its activity as transcription factor has profound effects on the prognosis and progression of diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration, and diabetes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a motor disease associated with the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta. p53 is a major neuronal pro-apoptotic factor that is at the center of gravity of multiple physiological and pathological cascades, some of which implying several key PD-linked proteins. Since p53 is up-regulated in PD-affected brain, we have examined its ability to regulate the transcription of α-synuclein, a key protein that accumulates in PD-related Lewy bodies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Neurodegener
September 2014
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the cellular compartment where secreted and integral membrane proteins are folded and matured. The accumulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins triggers a stress that is physiologically controlled by an adaptative protective response called Unfolded Protein Response (UPR). UPR is primordial to induce a quality control response and to restore ER homeostasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkin and DJ-1 are two multi-functional proteins linked to autosomal recessive early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD) that have been shown to functionally interact by as-yet-unknown mechanisms. We have delineated the mechanisms by which parkin controls DJ-1. Parkin modulates DJ-1 transcription and protein levels via a signaling cascade involving p53 and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress-induced active X-box-binding protein-1S (XBP-1S).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe previously established that besides its canonical function as E3-ubiquitin ligase, parkin also behaves as a transcriptional repressor of p53. Here we show that parkin differently modulates presenilin-1 and presenilin-2 expression and functions at transcriptional level. Thus, parkin enhances/reduces the protein expression, promoter activity and mRNA levels of presenilin-1 and presenilin-2, respectively, in cells and in vivo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnatomical lesions in Alzheimer disease-affected brains mainly consist of senile plaques, inflammation stigmata, and oxidative stress. The nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is a stress-activated transcription factor that is activated around senile plaques. We have assessed whether NF-κB could be differentially regulated at physiological or supraphysiological levels of amyloid β (Aβ) peptides.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe α-secretases A disintegrin and metalloprotease 10 (ADAM10) and ADAM17 trigger constitutive and regulated processing of the cellular prion protein (PrP(c)) yielding N1 fragment. The latter depends on protein kinase C (PKC)-coupled M1/M3 muscarinic receptor activation and subsequent phosphorylation of ADAM17 on its intracytoplasmic threonine 735. Here we show that regulated PrP(c) processing and ADAM17 phosphorylation and activation are controlled by the extracellular-regulated kinase-1/MAP-ERK kinase (ERK1/MEK) cascade.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene results in highly vascularized tumors, making the VHL tumor syndrome an ideal system to study the mechanisms of angiogenesis. VHL operates along two pathways with the first involving hypoxia-inducible factor-alpha degradation and down-regulation of its proangiogenic target genes vascular endothelial growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor-beta, and the second pathway promoting extracellular matrix (ECM) assembly. Secretion of proangiogenic factors was shown to be a primary inducer of angiogenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe mechanism by which hypoxia induces gene transcription involves the inhibition of HIF-1alpha (hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha subunit) PHD (prolyl hydroxylase) activity, which prevents the VHL (von Hippel-Lindau)-dependent targeting of HIF-1alpha to the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway. HIF-1alpha thus accumulates and promotes gene transcription. In the present study, first we provide direct biochemical evidence for the presence of a conserved hypoxic signalling pathway in Drosophila melanogaster.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe mechanism by which hypoxia induces gene transcription is now well established. Hypoxia reduces activity of prolyl hydroxylases (PHD) that hydroxylate specific proline residues in the oxygen-dependent degradation domain (ODD) of hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha). As a consequence, HIF-1alpha accumulates and promotes hypoxic tolerance by activating gene transcription.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe mechanism by which hypoxia induces gene transcription involves the inhibition of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1alpha prolyl hydroxylase activity, which prevents von Hippel-Lindau (vHL)-dependent targeting of HIF-1alpha to the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. HIF-1alpha is stabilized, translocates to the nucleus, interacts with hypoxia-responsive elements, and promotes the activation of target genes. This report shows that cyclosporin A (CsA) interferes with the hypoxic signaling cascade in C6 glioma cells.
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