Matrix remodeling, degradation, inflammation and invasion liberate peptide fragments that can subsequently interact with cells in an attachment-independent manner. Such 'soluble' matrix components, including collagens, fibronectin and laminin, induced Smad activation (termed crosstalk signaling), which follows a similar chronological sequence and R-Smad specificity as induced by transforming growth factor (TGF)-b1. Smad4 nuclear translocation occurred in response to collagen binding, indicating downstream signal propagation. TGF-b scavenging antibody affected only TGF-b1, but not crosstalk-induced responses. TGF-b type II receptor mutation (DR26D25), which is deficient in TGF-b type I receptor recruitment to the ligand, induced a heterotetramer signaling complex, and propagated Smad2 activation only through collagen induction and not TGF-b signaling. Consequentially, TGF-b ligand participation is not required for crosstalk signaling. This signaling requires a functional integrin b1 receptor as showed by RNA interference. Co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP) and fluorescent microscopy indicate the involvement of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and Src activity in collagen-induced signal propagation, and suggest a membrane signaling complex formation that includes both TGF-b receptors and integrins. The related gene expressional responses are distinct from that evoked by TGF-b1, supporting its separate function. This signaling mechanism expands and partially explains TGFb receptor dynamics and consequential signaling diversityrelated gene expressional plasticity.
Metabolic and functional alterations of neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) are thought to contribute to impulsivity, which is a hallmark of addictive behaviors that underlie compulsive drug seeking and taking in humans. To determine if there is a transcriptional signature in dlPFC neurons of humans with cocaine use disorder, we performed total RNA-sequencing on neuronal nuclei isolated from post-mortem dlPFC of cocaine addicts and healthy controls. Our results point toward a transcriptional mechanism whereby cocaine alters specific gene networks in dlPFC neurons. In particular, we identified an AP-1 regulated transcriptional network in dlPFC neurons associated with cocaine use disorder that contains several differentially expressed hub genes. Several of these hub genes are GWAS hits for traits that might involve dysfunction of brain reward circuitry (Body-Mass Index, Obesity) or dlPFC (Bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia). Further study is warranted to determine their potential pathophysiological role in cocaine addiction.
beta-cardiac myosin subfragment 1 (betaS1) tertiary structure and dynamics were characterized with proteolytic digestion, nucleotide analogue trapping kinetics, and intrinsic fluorescence changes accompanying nucleotide binding. Proteolysis of betaS1 produces the 25, 50, and 20 kDa fragments and a new cut within the 50-kDa fragment at Arg369. F-actin inhibits cleavage of the 50-kDa fragment and fails to inhibit cleavage at the 50/20 kDa junction, suggesting betaS1 presents an actoS1 conformation fundamentally different from skeletal S1. Time-dependent changes in Mg(2+)-ATPase accompanying proteolysis identifies cleavage points that lie within the energy transduction pathway. The nucleotide analogue trapping kinetics reveal the presence of a reversible weakly actin attached state. Comparison of nucleotide analogue induced betaS1 structures with the transient structures occurring during ATPase indicates analogue induced and transient structures are in a one-to-one correspondence. Tryptophan fluorescence enhancement accompanies the binding or trapping of nucleotide or nucleotide analogues. Isolation of Trp508 fluorescence shows it is an ATP-sensitive tryptophan and that its vicinity changes conformation sequentially with the transient intermediates accompanying ATPase. These studies elucidate energy transduction and suggest how mutations of betaS1 implicated in disease might undermine function, stability, or efficiency.
Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a psychiatric disorder that can include symptoms of disorganized speech and thoughts with uncertain underlying mechanisms possibly linked to over-activated microglia. In this study, we used brain samples from sixteen donors with SCZ and thirteen control donors to assess the differential activation of microglia by quantifying density and 3D reconstruction of microglia stained with ionized calcium-binding adaptor molecule-1 (Iba1). Our samples consisted of sections from the frontal, temporal, and cingulate cortical gray matter, subcortical white matter regions (SCWM), and included the anterior corpus callosum. In the first series of studies, we performed a density
The early neuropathological features of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neuron disease (ALS/MND) are protein aggregates in motor neurons and microglial activation. Similar pathology characterizes Guamanian ALS/Parkinsonism dementia complex, which may be triggered by the cyanotoxin β-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA). We report here the occurrence of ALS/MND-type pathological changes in vervets (Chlorocebus sabaeus; n = 8) fed oral doses of a dry powder of BMAA HCl salt (210 mg/kg/day) for 140 days. Spinal cords and brains from toxin-exposed vervets were compared to controls fed rice flour (210 mg/kg/day) and to vervets coadministered equal amounts of BMAA and l-serine (210 mg/kg/day). Immunohistochemistry and quantitative image analysis were used to examine markers of ALS/MND and glial activation. UHPLC-MS/MS was used to confirm BMAA exposures in dosed vervets. Motor neuron degeneration was demonstrated in BMAA-dosed vervets by TDP-43+ proteinopathy in anterior horn cells, by reactive astrogliosis, by activated microglia, and by damage to myelinated axons in the lateral corticospinal tracts. Vervets dosed with BMAA + l-serine displayed reduced neuropathological changes. This study demonstrates that chronic dietary exposure to BMAA causes ALS/MND-type pathological changes in the vervet and coadministration of l-serine reduces the amount of reactive gliosis and the number of protein inclusions in motor neurons.
The conformation of myosin subfragment 1 (S1) in the vicinity of the ATP sensitive tryptophan (Trp510) and the highly reactive thiol (SH1), both residing in the "probe-binding" cleft at the junction of the catalytic and lever arm domains, was studied to ascertain its role in the mechanism of energy transduction and force generation. In glycerinated muscle fibers in rigor, a fluorescent probe linked to SH1 detects a strained probe-binding cleft conformation following a length transient by altering emission intensity without detectably rotating. In myosin S1 in solution, the optical activity of Trp510 senses conformation change in the probe-binding cleft caused by substrate analog trapping of S1 in various structures attainable transiently during normal energy transduction. Also in S1 in solution, the induced optical activity of a fluorescein probe linked to SH1 shows sensitivity to changing probe-binding cleft conformation caused by nucleotide binding to the S1 active site. The changes in the optical activity of Trp510 and SH1 bound fluorescein in response to nucleotide or nucleotide analog binding are interpreted structurally using the S1 crystallographic coordinates and aided by a model of energy transduction that pivots at Gly699 to change probe-binding cleft conformation and to displace the S1 lever arm as during force generation. The crystallographic structure of the probe-binding cleft in S1 resembles most the nucleotide bound conformation in the native protein. A different structure, generated by pivoting at Gly699, better resembles the native rigor conformation of the probe-binding cleft. Pivoting at Gly699 rotates probes at SH1 suggesting that length transients on fibers in rigor do not cause pivoting at Gly699 or reverse the power stroke.
The motor protein myosin in association with actin transduces chemical free energy in ATP into work in the form of actin translation against an opposing force. Mediating the actomyosin interaction in myosin is an actin binding site distributed among several peptides on the myosin surface including surface loops contributing to affinity and actin regulation of myosin ATPase. A structured surface loop on -cardiac myosin, the cardiac or C-loop, was recently demonstrated to affect myosin ATPase and was indirectly implicated in the actomyosin interaction. The C-loop is a conserved feature of all myosin isoforms with crystal structures, suggesting that it is an essential part of the core energy transduction machinery. It is shown here that proteolytic digestion of the C-loop in -cardiac myosin eliminates actin-activated myosin ATPase and reduces actomyosin affinity in rigor more than 100-fold. Studies of C-loop function in smooth muscle myosin were also undertaken using sitedirected mutagenesis. Mutagenesis of a single charged residue in the C-loop of smooth muscle myosin alters actomyosin affinity and doubles myosin in vitro motility and actin-activated ATPase velocities, thereby involving a charged region of the loop in the actomyosin interaction. It appears likely that the C-loop is an essential electrostatic binding site for actin involved in modulation of actomyosin affinity and regulation of actomyosin ATPase velocity.The motor protein myosin is an ATPase and an actin-binding protein transducing ATP free energy into work. In muscle, myosin, actin, and ATP constitute the unitary work producer. The cyclical interaction of these components, a sequence of states each characterized as a static relation between the proteins and an intermediate in the degradation of ATP, is a contraction cycle. In a contraction cycle, myosin hydrolyzes ATP in its active site and forms a weak association with actin at a separate actin binding site. Release of phosphate from the active site initiates strong binding to actin and a large conformation change in myosin that produces work in the form of actin translation against a load. Several solved crystal structures represent intermediates in ATP hydrolysis and define myosin conformation changes in the absence of actin (1-6). Presently, we lack a detailed understanding of actomyosin structure and in particular how the elements making up the actomyosin interface contribute to mutual affinity, actin regulation of phosphate release, and the ability of myosin-bound nucleotide to modulate actomyosin affinity.Myosin consists of a globular head domain containing the enzymatic portion of the molecule and a tail involved in filament assembly. The globular head separated from its tail portion is called subfragment 1 (S1). 1 S1 interacts with filamentous actin (F-actin) consisting of polymerized actin monomers. An atomic model for F-actin built from monomeric actin crystal structures (7-9) satisfies x-ray diffraction data restraints (10) and is consistent with electron microscopic imagery (11). In...
Dopaminergic signaling in the reward pathway in the brain has been shown to play an important role in food intake and the development of obesity. Obese rats release less dopamine (DA) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) after food intake, and amphetamine stimulated striatal DA release is reduced in vivo in obese subjects. These studies suggest that DA hypofunction associated with hedonic dysregulation is involved in the pathophysiology of obesity. To identify brain changes in obesity, quantitative measures of DA synaptic markers were compared in postmortem brain tissues of normal weight and obese subjects over a range of increasing body mass indices (BMI). DA transporter (DAT) numbers in the striatum were compared to the relative expression of DAT, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and D2 dopamine receptors (DRD2) in midbrain DA neurons. Radioligand binding assays of [3H]WIN35,428 demonstrated that the number of striatal DAT binding sites was inversely correlated with increasing BMI (r = −0.47; p < 0.01). DAT and TH gene expression were significantly decreased in the somatodendritic compartment of obese subjects (p < 0.001), with no significant change in DRD2 compared to normal weight subjects. The reduced density of striatal DAT with corresponding reductions in DAT and TH gene expression in substantia nigra (SN) suggests, that obesity is associated with hypodopaminergic function. A DA reward deficiency syndrome has been suggested to underlie abnormal eating behavior that leads to obesity. Neurobiological changes in presynaptic DA markers demonstrated postmortem in human brain support a link between hedonic DA dysregulation and obesity.
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