Background: With current treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD) only providing temporary symptomatic benefits, disease modifying drugs are urgently required. This approach relies on improved understanding of the early pathophysiology of AD. A new hypothesis has emerged, in which early memory loss is considered a synapse failure caused by soluble amyloid-β oligomers (Aβo).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNon-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) inhibit cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) and COX-2 enzymes. The NLRP3 inflammasome is a multi-protein complex responsible for the processing of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β and is implicated in many inflammatory diseases. Here we show that several clinically approved and widely used NSAIDs of the fenamate class are effective and selective inhibitors of the NLRP3 inflammasome via inhibition of the volume-regulated anion channel in macrophages, independently of COX enzymes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFASEB J
September 2015
Deficiency in the methyl donors vitamin B12 and folate during pregnancy and postnatal life impairs proper brain development. We studied the consequences of this combined deficiency on cerebellum plasticity in offspring from rat mothers subjected to deficient diet during gestation and lactation and in rat neuroprogenitor cells expressing cerebellum markers. The major proteomic change in cerebellum of 21-d-old deprived females was a 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe examined the gastric mucosa structure and inflammatory status in control well-nourished Wistar dams and in Wistar dams deprived of choline, folate, and vitamin B12 during gestation and suckling periods, and in their offspring just before birth and at weaning. In this model of methyl donor deficiency (MDD), structural protein (E-cadherin and actin) N-homocysteinylation was measured through immunoprecipitation and proximity ligation assays. Cellular stress, inflammation, and apoptosis were estimated by the analysis of the NF-κB pathway, and the expression of superoxide dismutase, cyclooxygenase-2, tumor necrosis factor α, caspases 3 and 9, and TUNEL assay.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhereas brief acute or intermittent episodes of hypoxia have been shown to exert a protective role in the central nervous system and to stimulate neurogenesis, other studies suggest that early hypoxia may constitute a risk factor that influences the future development of mental disorders. We therefore investigated the effects of a neonatal "conditioning-like" hypoxia (100% N₂, 5 min) on the brain and the cognitive outcomes of rats until 720 days of age (physiologic senescence). We confirmed that such a short hypoxia led to brain neurogenesis within the ensuing weeks, along with reduced apoptosis in the hippocampus involving activation of Erk1/2 and repression of p38 and death-associated protein (DAP) kinase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF