Cells counter accumulation of misfolded secretory proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) through activation of the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR). Small molecules termed chemical chaperones can promote protein folding to alleviate ER stress. The bile acid tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), has been described as a chemical chaperone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPathogenic variants in subunits of RNA polymerase (Pol) III cause a spectrum of -related neurodegenerative diseases including 4H leukodystrophy. Disease onset occurs from infancy to early adulthood and is associated with a variable range and severity of neurological and non-neurological features. The molecular basis of -related disease pathogenesis is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Non-toxic approaches to enhance radiotherapy outcomes are beneficial, particularly in ageing populations. Based on preclinical findings showing that high-fibre diets sensitised bladder tumours to irradiation by modifying the gut microbiota, along with clinical evidence of prebiotics enhancing anti-cancer immunity, we hypothesised that dietary fibre and its gut microbiota modification can radiosensitise tumours via secretion of metabolites and/or immunomodulation. We investigated the efficacy of high-fibre diets combined with irradiation in immunoproficient C57BL/6 mice bearing bladder cancer flank allografts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPathogenic variants in subunits of RNA polymerase (Pol) III cause a spectrum of -related neurodegenerative diseases including 4H leukodystrophy. Disease onset occurs from infancy to early adulthood and is associated with a variable range and severity of neurological and non-neurological features. The molecular basis of -related disease pathogenesis is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To assess the accessibility, availability and utilisation of a comprehensive range of community-based healthcare services for Aboriginal people and describe contributing factors to providing effective healthcare services from the provider perspective.
Setting: A remote community in New South Wales, Australia.
Participants: Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal health and education professionals performing various roles in healthcare provision in the community.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
October 2021
RNA polymerase (Pol) III synthesizes abundant short noncoding RNAs that have essential functions in protein synthesis, secretion, and other processes. Despite the ubiquitous functions of these RNAs, mutations in Pol III subunits cause Pol III-related leukodystrophy, an early-onset neurodegenerative disease. The basis of this neural sensitivity and the mechanisms of disease pathogenesis are unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
March 2021
Background: Australia's healthcare system is complex and fragmented which can create challenges in healthcare, particularly in rural and remote areas. Aboriginal people experience inequalities in healthcare treatment and outcomes. This study aimed to investigate barriers and enablers to accessing healthcare services for Aboriginal people living in regional and remote Australia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The early closure of the Voluntary Dental Graduate Year Program and the Oral Health Therapy Graduate Year Program by the Australian Government adversely impacted New South Wales (NSW) Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs). This led to the co-design of a small-scale oral health therapy graduate year program for ACCHSs known as the Dalang Project, which enabled oral health therapists to engage with local Aboriginal communities and implement culturally competent, practical and evidence-based oral health promotion activities. This article provides an overview of the Dalang Project and its evaluation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMutations in RNA polymerase III (Pol III) cause hypomeylinating leukodystrophy (HLD) and neurodegeneration in humans. POLR3A and POLR3B, the two largest Pol III subunits, together form the catalytic center and carry the majority of disease alleles. Disease-causing mutations include invariant and highly conserved residues that are predicted to negatively affect Pol III activity and decrease transcriptional output.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaf1 mice are lean, obesity-resistant and metabolically inefficient. Their increased energy expenditure is thought to be driven by a futile RNA cycle that reprograms metabolism to meet an increased demand for nucleotides stemming from the deregulation of RNA polymerase (pol) III transcription. Metabolic changes consistent with this model have been reported in both fasted and refed mice, however the impact of the fasting-refeeding-cycle on pol III function has not been examined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci
September 2020
The absence of clinical tools to evaluate individual variation in the pace of aging represents a major impediment to understanding aging and maximizing health throughout life. The human lens is an ideal tissue for quantitative assessment of molecular aging in vivo. Long-lived proteins in lens fiber cells are expressed during fetal life, do not undergo turnover, accumulate molecular alterations throughout life, and are optically accessible in vivo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaf1 is a conserved inhibitor of RNA polymerase III (Pol III) that influences phenotypes ranging from metabolic efficiency to lifespan. Here, we present a 3.3-Å-resolution cryo-EM structure of yeast Maf1 bound to Pol III, establishing that Maf1 sequesters Pol III elements involved in transcription initiation and binds the mobile C34 winged helix 2 domain, sealing off the active site.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Western models of care to improve the oral health of pregnant women have been successfully implemented in the healthcare setting across various developed countries. Even though Indigenous women experience poorer pregnancy and birth outcomes compared to other women, these models have not been developed with Indigenous communities to address the oral health needs of Indigenous pregnant women. This review aimed to understand the oral health knowledge, practices, attitudes and challenges of Indigenous pregnant women globally.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecessive mutations in the ubiquitously expressed POLR3A and POLR3B genes are the most common cause of POLR3-related hypomyelinating leukodystrophy (POLR3-HLD), a rare childhood-onset disorder characterized by deficient cerebral myelin formation and cerebellar atrophy. POLR3A and POLR3B encode the two catalytic subunits of RNA Polymerase III (Pol III), which synthesizes numerous small non-coding RNAs. We recently reported that mice homozygous for the Polr3a mutation c.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe argument is frequently made that the amyloid-β protein (Aβ) persists in the human genome because Alzheimer's disease (AD) primarily afflicts individuals over reproductive age and, therefore, there is low selective pressure for the peptide's elimination or modification. This argument is an important premise for AD amyloidosis models and therapeutic strategies that characterize Aβ as a functionless and intrinsically pathological protein. Here, we review if evolutionary theory and data on the genetics and biology of Aβ are consistent with low selective pressure for the peptide's expression in senescence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe epithelial Na channel (ENaC) provides for Na absorption in various types of epithelia including the kidney, lung, and colon where ENaC is localized to the apical membrane to enable Na entry into the cell. The degree of Na entry via ENaC largely depends on the number of active channels localized to the cell membrane, and is tightly controlled by interactions with ubiquitin ligases, kinases, and G-proteins. While regulation of ENaC endocytosis has been well-studied, relatively little is understood of the proteins that govern ENaC exocytosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
November 2018
As a master negative regulator of RNA polymerase (Pol) III, Maf1 modulates transcription in response to nutrients and stress to balance the production of highly abundant tRNAs, 5S rRNA, and other small noncoding RNAs with cell growth and maintenance. This regulation of Pol III transcription is important for energetic economy as mice lacking are lean and resist weight gain on normal and high fat diets. The lean phenotype of knockout (KO) mice is attributed in part to metabolic inefficiencies which increase the demand for cellular energy and elevate catabolic processes, including autophagy/lipophagy and lipolysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: We explore here a novel model for amyloidogenesis in Alzheimer's disease (AD). This new perspective on AD amyloidosis seeks to provide a rational framework for incorporating recent and seemingly independent findings on the antimicrobial role of β-amyloid and emerging experimental, genetic, and epidemiological data, suggesting innate immune-mediated inflammation propagates AD neurodegeneration.
Background: AD pathology is characterized by cerebral deposition of amyloid-β protein (Aβ) as β-amyloid.
Objective: To assess the effectiveness of a dental health education program, 'Smiles not Tears' in preventing Early Childhood Caries in young Aboriginal children.
Basic Research Design: Community trial.
Clinical Setting: Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services in rural, remote and metropolitan areas in New South Wales, Australia.
Amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) fibrilization and deposition as β-amyloid are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. We recently reported Aβ is an innate immune protein that protects against fungal and bacterial infections. Fibrilization pathways mediate Aβ antimicrobial activities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIdentifying non-annotated peaks may have a significant impact on the understanding of biological systems. In silico methodologies have focused on ESI LC/MS/MS for identifying non-annotated MS peaks. In this study, we employed in silico methodology to develop an Isotopic Ratio Outlier Analysis (IROA) workflow using enhanced mass spectrometric data acquired with the ultra-high resolution GC-Orbitrap/MS to determine the identity of non-annotated metabolites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnu Rev Biochem
June 2018
RNA polymerase (Pol) III has a specialized role in transcribing the most abundant RNAs in eukaryotic cells, transfer RNAs (tRNAs), along with other ubiquitous small noncoding RNAs, many of which have functions related to the ribosome and protein synthesis. The high energetic cost of producing these RNAs and their central role in protein synthesis underlie the robust regulation of Pol III transcription in response to nutrients and stress by growth regulatory pathways. Downstream of Pol III, signaling impacts posttranscriptional processes affecting tRNA function in translation and tRNA cleavage into smaller fragments that are increasingly attributed with novel cellular activities.
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