Apoptosis is prevalent during development of the central nervous system (CNS), yet very little is known about the signals that specify an apoptotic cell fate. In this paper, we examine the role of Numb/Notch signaling in the development of the serotonin lineage of Drosophila and show that it is necessary for regulating apoptosis. Our results indicate that when Numb inhibits Notch signaling, cel...

Excitotoxicity is implicated in the pathogenesis of several neurologic diseases, such as chronic neurodegenerative diseases and stroke. Recently, it was reported that excitotoxicity has a relationship to apoptotic neuronal death, and that the mitochondrial toxin, 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NP), could induce apoptosis in the striatum. Although striatal lesions produced by 3-NP could develop throug...

Neuroregeneration and apoptosis are two important pathophysiologic changes after spinal cord injury (SCI), but their underlying mechanisms remain unclear. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a crucial role in the regulation of neuroregeneration and neuronal apoptosis, research areas that have been greatly expanded in recent years. Here, using miRNA arrays to profile miRNA transcriptomes, we demonstrated th...

Elevated levels of beta-amyloid (Abeta) in the brains being a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been believed to play a critical role in the cognitive dysfunction that occurs in AD. Recent evidence suggests that Abeta induces neuronal apoptosis in the brain and in primary neuronal cultures. In this study, we investigated the effects of beta-asarone, the major ingredient of Acorus Tatari...

In addition to neuritic changes and amyloid deposits, neuronal and glial cell apoptosis is an important pathological feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Several factors have been postulated as causes or triggers of cellular apoptotic change. This study focused on a quantifiable relationship between phosphorylation sites of tau protein in the neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and neuronal apoptosis...

Caspase-independent death mechanisms have been shown to execute apoptosis in many types of neuronal injury. P53 has been identified as a key regulator of neuronal cell death after acute injury such as DNA damage, ischemia, and excitotoxicity. Here, we demonstrate that p53 can induce neuronal cell death via a caspase-mediated process activated by apoptotic activating factor-1 (Apaf1) and via a d...

Early life neuronal exposure to environmental toxicants has been suggested to be an important etiology of neurodegenerative disease development. Perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS), one of the major perfluoroalkyl compounds, is widely distributed environmental contaminants. We have reported that PFHxS induces neuronal apoptosis via ERK-mediated pathway. Imperatorin is a furanocoumarin found in var...

We studied the novel hypothesis that an up-modulation of channels for outward delayed rectifier K+ current (I(K)) plays a key role in ceramide-induced neuronal apoptosis. Exposure for 6-10 h to the membrane-permeable C2-ceramide (25 microM) or to sphingomyelinase (0.2 unit/ml), but not to the inactive ceramide analogue C2-dihydroceramide (25 microM), enhanced the whole-cell I(K) current without...

The major challenge to treat Parkinson’s disease (PD) is penetration of target molecule into the brain to improve the efficacy of drugs. To achieve better brain penetration and targeted delivery, 1,9-Pyrazoloanthrone (1,9-P) loaded liposomes were developed by solvent injection technique using ultrasonication and evaluated for particle size, morphology, entrapment efficiency, FT-IR, and in-vitro...