Peripheral processes that mediate beneficial effects of exercise on the brain remain sparsely explored. Here, we show that a muscle secretory factor, cathepsin B (CTSB) protein, is important for the cognitive and neurogenic benefits of running. Proteomic analysis revealed elevated levels of CTSB in conditioned medium derived from skeletal muscle cell cultures treated with AMP-kinase agonist AIC...

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is an important cause of proteinuria and nephrotic syndrome in humans. The pathogenesis of FSGS may be associated with glomerular visceral epithelial cell (GEC; podocyte) injury, leading to apoptosis, detachment, and "podocytopenia", followed by glomerulosclerosis. Mutations in α-actinin-4 are associated with FSGS in humans. In cultured GECs, α-actinin-...

Neisseria meningitidis is a major causative agent of bacterial septicemia and meningitis in humans. Currently, there are no vaccines to prevent disease caused by strains of N.meningitidis serogroup B. The Class 1 Outer Membrane Protein (OMP) has been named porA which is a cation selective transmembrane protein of 45 KDa that forms trimeric pore in the meningococcal outer membrane. PorA from ser...

Mitochondrial transcription factor A (mtTFA) is a key activator of mitochondrial transcription in mammals. It also has a role in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication, since transcription generates an RNA primer necessary for initiation of mtDNA replication. In the mouse, testis-specific mtTFA transcripts encode a protein isoform that is imported to the nucleus rather than into mitochondria of ...

Preclinical mouse infection models are widely used for Helicobacter vaccine development, but how well such models mimic important aspects of human infections is unknown. A comparison of Helicobacter pylori immunoproteomes of infected mice with previously reported patient data reveals a high agreement in the antigens recognized, suggesting that H. pylori in vivo protein composition and recogniti...

Many of the diverse functional consequences of activating group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptors require translation of pre-existing mRNA near synapses. One of these consequences is long-term depression (LTD) of transmission at hippocampal synapses. Loss of fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), the defect responsible for fragile X syndrome in humans, increases LTD in mouse hippocampus....

The SNF2 gene family consists of a large group of proteins involved in transcriptional regulation, maintenance of chromosome integrity, and various aspects of DNA repair. We cloned a novel SNF2 family human cDNA, with sequence identity to the Escherichia coli RNA polymerase-binding protein HepA and named the human hepA-related protein (HHARP/SMARCAL1). In addition, the mouse ortholog (Mharp/Sma...

Holoprosencephaly is the most common forebrain defect in humans. We describe two novel mouse mutants that display a holoprosencephaly-like phenotype. Both mutations disrupt genes in the glycerophosphatidyl inositol (GPI) biosynthesis pathway: gonzo disrupts Pign and beaker disrupts Pgap1. GPI anchors normally target and anchor a diverse group of proteins to lipid raft domains. Mechanistically w...

Objective(s)  Garlic (Allium sativum) is known as a potent spice and a medicine with broad therapeutic properties ranging from antibacterial to anticancer, and anticoagulant. One of the major purified garlic protein components is the 47 kDa protein. In this study, the effect of 47 kDa protein extracted from aged garlic (AGE) was evaluated on mouse dendritic cell (DC) maturation in vitro. Mate...

Researchers around the world perform large-scale screens to identify disease-related gene defects in humans. One of the genes of interest is Pericentrin (PCNT), a gene which codes for a large coiled-coil protein with multiple functions in the cell. Recently, we showed that different Pericentrin (Pcnt) splice variants are differentially distributed among sensory tissues of the mouse, emphasizing...