Publications by authors named "Kiyomi Nakagawa"
Depression in later life is associated with dementia. Changes in motivated behavior are an important mechanism contributing to dysfunctional cognitive control in depression. Although continuous intake of quercetin-rich onion suppresses cognitive decline in aged people by improving their emotional condition, the effect of quercetin-rich onion on emotional condition in people living with cognitive impairment remains unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - Adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) is crucial for brain functions linked to the hippocampus, but the number of immature neurons decreases significantly in early and late stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
- - Midlife obesity has been connected to later dementia, but the exact reasons behind this link are still unclear; the study suggests that ER stress might be involved.
- - The research indicates that ER stress leads to the shortening of immature neuron processes and the rapid degradation of Dcx mRNA, which may contribute to memory issues in obese individuals as they age.
Article Synopsis
- Research indicates that etoposide causes Apaf-1 to interact with Cullin-4B, leading to increased ubiquitination and potential degradation of Apaf-1 in healthy cells.
- In situations where the proteasome is impaired, such as with MG132 treatment, ubiquitinated Apaf-1 can activate caspase-9 by forming aggregates with p62 in the cytosol, suggesting a new role for Apaf-1 in cell death pathways.
Article Synopsis
- Olfaxin is a protein mainly found in mitral and tufted cells of the olfactory bulb, with similar properties to another protein called Caytaxin, which is linked to motor dysfunction in humans and mice.
- Researchers created Prune2 gene mutant mice (Olfaxin knockouts) using CRISPR/Cas9 to study Olfaxin, resulting in reduced levels of both Olfaxin mRNA and protein in the olfactory bulb and piriform cortex.
- The knockout mice showed impaired odor preference and disrupted odor-associative learning, suggesting that Olfaxin is crucial for olfactory memory and preference though sensory and motor functions remained intact.
Most of the endogenous free d-serine (about 90%) in the brain is produced by serine racemase (SR). d-Serine in the brain is involved in neurodegenerative disorders and epileptic states as an endogenous co-agonist of the NMDA-type glutamate receptor. Thus, SR inhibitors are expected to be novel therapeutic candidates for the treatment of these disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) experience a wide array of cognitive deficits, which typically include the impairment of explicit memory. In previous studies, the authors reported that a flavonoid, quercetin, reduces the expression of ATF4 and delays memory deterioration in an early-stage AD mouse model. In the present study, the effects of long-term quercetin intake on memory recall were assessed using contextual fear conditioning in aged wild-type mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is important in various cellular functions, such as secretary and membrane protein biosynthesis, lipid synthesis, and calcium storage. ER stress, including membrane distortion, is associated with many diseases such as Huntington's disease. In particular, nuclear envelope distortion is related to neuronal cell death associated with polyglutamine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs a base for human transcriptome and functional genomics, we created the "full-length long Japan" (FLJ) collection of sequenced human cDNAs. We determined the entire sequence of 21,243 selected clones and found that 14,490 cDNAs (10,897 clusters) were unique to the FLJ collection. About half of them (5,416) seemed to be protein-coding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF