Publications by authors named "Marina Han"
Introduction: Genetic variation in the lysosomal and transmembrane protein 106B (TMEM106B) modifies risk for several neurodegenerative disorders, especially frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). The C-terminal (CT) domain of TMEM106B occurs as fibrillar protein deposits in the brains of dementia patients.
Methods: To determine the TMEM CT aggregation propensity and neurodegenerative potential, we generated transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans expressing the human TMEM CT fragment aggregating in FTLD cases.
Pathological tau disrupts protein homeostasis (proteostasis) within neurons in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorders. We previously showed constitutive activation of the endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response (UPR) transcription factor XBP-1s rescues tauopathy-related proteostatic disruption in a tau transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) model of human tauopathy.
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- * A systematic review identified 36 new pathogenic and 10 likely pathogenic variants through measuring esterase activity, creating a reliable method for classifying variants related to PNPLA6.
- * The study revealed a significant link between NTE activity levels and the presence of specific symptoms like retinopathy and endocrinopathy, supporting the idea that PNPLA6 disorders are a spectrum of related phenotypes based on NTE genotype and activity, setting the stage for future therapies.
Protein homeostasis is perturbed in aging-related neurodegenerative diseases called tauopathies, which are pathologically characterized by aggregation of the microtubule-associated protein tau (encoded by the human MAPT gene). Transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans serve as a powerful model organism to study tauopathy disease mechanisms, but moderating transgenic expression level has proven problematic. To study neuronal tau proteostasis, we generated a suite of transgenic strains expressing low, medium or high levels of Dendra2::tau fusion proteins by comparing integrated multicopy transgene arrays with single-copy safe-harbor locus strains generated by recombinase-mediated cassette exchange.
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- Biallelic pathogenic variants in the NTE gene are linked to various disorders that cause issues like gait disturbance, visual impairment, and hormonal problems such as anterior hypopituitarism.
- A clinical meta-analysis of new and previously reported patients identifies specific missense variants as significant contributors to disease pathogenesis, with a developed functional assay helping to classify variants of unknown significance.
- Findings show a clear connection between reduced NTE activity and the occurrence of certain conditions (retinopathy and endocrinopathy), suggesting a continuous spectrum of disorders based on NTE functionality, which may guide future therapeutic strategies.
Adrenergic manipulation inhibits pavlovian conditioned approach behaviors.
Behav Brain Res
February 2018
Environmental rewards and Pavlovian reward cues can acquire incentive salience, thereby eliciting incentive motivational states and instigate reward-seeking. In rats, the incentive salience of food cues can be measured during a Pavlovian conditioned approach paradigm, in which rats engage in cue-directed approach ("sign-tracking") or approach the food delivery location ("goal-tracking"). While it has been shown that dopamine signaling is necessary for sign-tracking, some studies have suggested that norepinephrine is involved in learning to sign-track as well.
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