新颖原位活性测定实验用于视网膜神经退行性过程的定量分子分析

Title:Novel In Situ Activity Assays for the Quantitative Molecular Analysis of Neurodegenerative Processes in the Retina

Volume: 21 Issue: 30

Author(s): P.A.R. Ekstrom, M. Ueffing, E. Zrenner and F. Paquet-Durand

Affiliation:

关键词: 钙蛋白酶，细胞死亡，环磷酸鸟苷，组蛋白去乙酰化酶，聚腺苷二磷酸核糖合酶，原位末端标记法

摘要: The mechanisms of neuronal cell death are still only poorly understood, which has hindered the advancement of therapies for many currently untreatable neurodegenerative diseases. This calls for the development of new methods which reveal critical molecular mechanisms of the celldeath machinery with both high sensitivity and cellular resolution. Using animal models for hereditary neurodegeneration in the retina, we have developed or adapted different biochemical assays to determine the enzymatic activities of calpain, poly-ADP-ribose-polymerase (PARP), and histone deacetylase (HDAC) directly and in situ. Additionally, the enzymatic activity of cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) was assessed indirectly using in situ immunohistological techniques to detect PKG-activity-dependent products. Combining these assays with in situ cell death markers revealed close temporospatial correlations, suggesting causal connections between the PKG, HDAC, PARP and calpain activities and neuronal cell death. Using different pharmacological and genetic manipulations, causality could indeed be demonstrated. Surprisingly, the often dramatic rises in metabolic activities didnot match by corresponding increases in expression, highlighting the importance of analyses of protein activities at the cellular level. The above mentioned studies identified a number of metabolic processes previously unknownto be involved in inherited retinal degeneration. Comparing different animal retinal degeneration models uncovered striking similarities in enzymatic activities, suggesting a generality of the destructive pathways. Taken together, these findings provided a number of novel targets for neuroprotection and as such opened up new perspectives for the therapy of hereditary neurodegeneration in the retina and possibly other parts of the central nervous system.

Cite this article as:

Ekstrom P.A.R., Ueffing M., Zrenner E. and Paquet-Durand F., Novel In Situ Activity Assays for the Quantitative Molecular Analysis of Neurodegenerative Processes in the Retina, Current Medicinal Chemistry 2014; 21 (30) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0929867321666140601201337