Publications by authors named "Maria Dolores Perez-Carrion"
Article Synopsis
- SiRNA (small interfering RNA) is a special tool that can help scientists turn off specific genes, which is super helpful for studying and treating diseases.
- There are already 5 siRNA treatments approved by the FDA for diseases like high cholesterol and certain nerve problems, showing that these treatments are promising.
- Scientists are working on using siRNA to help even more diseases by delivering them in special tiny packages (lipid-based nanoparticles), which may lead to many new medicines in the future.
Article Synopsis
- - Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder marked by symptoms like tremors and muscle stiffness, primarily caused by the harmful buildup of protein aggregates known as Lewy's Bodies.
- - The LRRK2 gene is one of the most common genetic contributors to Parkinson's, with its toxicity linked to increased kinase activity and other emerging mechanisms that disrupt the normal functioning of LRRK2.
- - This review explores various LRRK2 mutations and discusses cellular mechanisms that govern LRRK2 stability, along with potential therapeutic strategies to mitigate neurodegeneration by targeting LRRK2 through small molecules or gene silencing.
Food-related disorders are increasingly common in developed societies, and the psychological component of these disorders has been gaining increasing attention. Both overnourishment with high-fat diets and perinatal undernourishment in mice have been linked to a higher motivation toward food, resulting in an alteration in food intake. Clusterin (CLU), a multifaced protein, is overexpressed in the (NAc) of over-fed rats, as well as in those that suffered chronic undernutrition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA small set of trehalose-centered putative autophagy inducers was rationally designed and synthesized, with the aim to identify more potent and bioavailable autophagy inducers than free trehalose, and to acquire information about their molecular mechanism of action. Several robust, high yield routes to key trehalose intermediates and small molecule prodrugs (2-5), putative probes (6-10) and inorganic nanovectors (12a - thiol-PEG-triazole-trehalose constructs 11) were successfully executed, and compounds were tested for their autophagy-inducing properties. While small molecules 2-11 showed no pro-autophagic behavior at sub-millimolar concentrations, trehalose-bearing PEG-AuNPs 12a caused measurable autophagy induction at an estimated 40 μM trehalose concentration without any significant toxicity at the same concentration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmall interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) has the potential to revolutionize therapeutics since it can knockdown very efficiently the target protein. It is starting to be widely used to interfere with cell infection by HIV. However, naked siRNAs are unable to get into the cell, requiring the use of carriers to protect them from degradation and transporting them across the cell membrane.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The LRRK2 protein has important functional areas at both ends that help it interact with other proteins, and mutations in the LRRK2 gene are associated with Parkinson's disease.
- A new variant, E193K, in the N-terminal region of LRRK2 was examined for its effects on vesicle trafficking using advanced microscopy techniques.
- The study found that the E193K variant disrupts LRRK2's normal binding to synaptic vesicles and enhances vesicle fusion, indicating that mutations in LRRK2 can significantly affect its role in cellular processes related to Parkinson's disease.
Article Synopsis
- Mutations in the LRRK2 gene are linked to familial Parkinson's disease, with the protein having important interaction domains at both its ends.
- This study used microscopy and assays to find that the N- and C-terminal domains of LRRK2 affect synaptic vesicle movement in opposing ways and bind to different proteins.
- The G2385R variant in the C-terminal domain increases Parkinson's risk by altering protein interactions and synaptic vesicle fusion, potentially leading to impaired vesicular trafficking and disease progression.