Alzheimer-associated neuronal thread protein, AD7c-NTP, accumulates in cortical neurons and co-localizes with phospho-tau-containing cytoskeletal lesions in brains with AD. Over-expression of AD7c-NTP results in increased neuronal death mediated by apoptosis and mitochondrial dysfunction. Empirical studies demonstrating differential growth factor responses to AD7c-NTP led to us to further inves...

Manic-depressive illness has been conceptualized as a neurochemical illness. However, brain imaging and postmortem studies reveal gray-matter reductions, as well as neuronal and glial atrophy and loss in discrete brain regions of manic-depressive patients. The roles of such cerebral morphological deficits in the neuropathophysiology and therapeutic mechanisms of manic-depressive illness are unk...

AIM Following toll-like receptor (TLR) engagement, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) can stimulate the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines thus activating the innate immune response. The production of inflammatory cytokines results, in part, from the activation of kinase-induced signalling cascades and transcriptional factors. Of the four distinct classes of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK)...

Hippocampal precursor of nerve growth factor (proNGF)/NGF signaling occurs in conjunction with β-amyloid (Aβ) accumulations in Alzheimer disease (AD). To assess the involvement of this pathway in AD progression, we quantified these proteins and their downstream pathway activators in postmortem tissues from the brains of subjects with no cognitive impairment (NCI), mild cognitive impairment (MCI...

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptors (GnRHR) mediate activation and nuclear translocation of the extracellular signal regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK) by phosphorylation on the TEY motif. This is necessary for GnRH to initiate transcriptional programmes controlling fertility, but mechanisms that govern ERK targeting are unclear. Using automated microscopy to explore ERK regulation in single ...

Local anesthetics (LA) are among the drugs most frequently used for musculoskeletal problems, in procedures ranging from diagnosis to postoperative pain control. The cytotoxicity of LA is an emerging area of concern. The purpose of this study was to determine whether cyanidin, an antioxidant, exerts cytoprotective effects against tenofibroblast death induced by LA. Primary cultured human rotato...

Gefitinib showed response in phase II clinical trials and with better clinical response in lung cancer with activating mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain of the EGFR. Questions of toxicity and potential dosing regimens impede the use in a prevention setting. This study will provide scientific evidence for the utility of testing and comparing weekly and daily dosing regimens in clinical tri...

The histone deacetylase inhibitor N¹-(ferrocenyl)-N⁸-hydroxyoctanediamide (JAHA) down-regulates extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and its activated form in triple-negative MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells after 18 h and up to 30 h of treatment, and to a lesser extent AKT and phospho-AKT after 30 h and up to 48 h of treatment. Also, DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), 3b and, to a lesser ext...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) govern an expanding number of biological and disease processes. Understanding the mechanisms by which the miRNA pathway is regulated, therefore, represents an important area of investigation. We determined that the human miRNA-generating complex is comprised of Dicer and phospho-TRBP isoforms. Phosphorylation of TRBP is mediated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) ...

Constitutive activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (Erk1/2) is frequently implicated in human cancers. Recently, aberrantly activated Erk was also found in brain lesions associated with tuberous sclerosis (TSC). We reported previously that Erk might contribute to tumorigenesis by phosphorylating TSC2 at specific residues, particularly S664. In our present study, 25 TSC-related co...